The Israeli Defence Force believes that one of Hezbollah’s main funding sources is the trade in Captagon, a powerful amphetamine that is produced almost entirely in the Middle East. A former Israeli ambassador to the US says the recent IDF strikes in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley have the aim of taking out Hezbollah’s narcotics production infrastructure.

Zimbabwe has been struggling to develop its medical cannabis value chain but this looks set to change as Ivory Medical brings an innovative product range to market. Its CannaQure range, launched last week, integrates traditional African medicines into cannabis-based therapeutic products.

Only nine countries in Africa have legalized medical cannabis to some degree, but for the rest of the continent the global medical cannabis revolution is passing it by. Nonetheless, African pharmacists should tackle their own knowledge gap in anticipation of cannabis becoming part of integrated public health systems in the future.

Donald Trump’s White House victory has been greeted with cautious optimism by the big players in the US cannabis industry. They don’t see the Republicans rolling back plans for federal reform, banking access and state autonomy and hope for bipartisan support in dealing with regulatory challenges.

Presidential cannabis advisor Garth Strachan acknowledges the pace of cannabis reform has been slow but says that now the DTIC is in the saddle, there should be more momentum. Here is his summary of the current state of regulatory play in the cannabis sector.

As most of the cannabis community that has borne the brunt of the law is strongly aware: police are not trained to think. SAPS is about to embark on a mass recruitment drive but until such time that recruits are taught not just to obey orders but to make decisions, there will be no curbing South Africa’s high crime levels.

South Africa’s new Trade and Industry Minister, Parks Tau has been given the task of bringing other Government departments into line on cannabis policy. He’s also going to be responsible for drawing up appropriate legislation to enable cannabis reform.

SAHPRA says authorities have raided ‘grey zone’ cannabis outlets in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) and have taken ‘appropriate enforcement actions’ against them. It says there is no such thing as a dispensary license and anyone selling cannabis to the public should face the ‘full might of the law’.

Mexico’s new president wants to constitutionally ban all vapes by the end of the year. Critics are concerned that this overlooks the fact that vapes are nicotine alternatives and that banning them will simply drive the vape market further underground.

Despite billions of rands in investment, South Africa’s medical cannabis industry continues to face an uphill battle, not least of which are a surplus of unsold inventory and a lack of return. New cannabis player Nexus Pharma has built its business model around tackling these challenges to market South African medical cannabis internationally.

International consulting company Global G has just released its Global Cannabis Market: Fall 2024 Outlook which shows the market just keeps growing. The oils market especially has expanded rapidly in a sector that has increased by 14% in value over the past year. Sadly, Africa is nowhere to be found in this positive prognosis.

South African cannabis retailers trapped in the ‘grey zone’ of regulatory vacuum may take heart from a recent bombshell ruling in New York City. A Queens judge has ruled as unconstitutional a state law that allowed NYC to padlock hundreds of suspected illegal cannabis shops.