Karma Koala Podcast

It’s time to catch up with Brett & Marleen to see how the Mpondoland Plug Project is going a year + since we last spoke on the podcast.

They are connecting rural communities to the new South African cannabis club scene under the law as it now stands in South Africa.

There aren’t many projects like this in Africa or around the world for that matter so the model they are working on should be of interest to anyone looking to do things a little differently.

Yes not controlling the means of production but rather guiding and being guided is harder but it already sounds as though it is more rewarding.

If I’m in the US or Canada and Mpondoland sun grown cannabis was on offer at my local dispensary rather than fake Durban Poioson or blueberry this, bannana caramel that, I know what i’d be spending my hard earned cash on.


https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-337-brett-pollack-marleen-theunissen-mpondoland-plug-project-connecting-rural-communities-into-south-africas-nascent-cannabis-market-under-law/

I speak to Chris about his book "The African Roots of Marijuana" and what he learnt from the research.

The effects of colonialization and conservative Islam on attitudes towards cannabis from the 19th century through to mid 20th century and the subsequent internationalization of cannabis prohibition.

As always with the cannabis plant there's layers of culture, complexity and diversity that we will be unravelling for many years to come.

The big question. How do African nations create the structures for themselves and their people's future?

Business, or for that matter life, in the US doesn’t operate without credit reports.

Cannabis needs it desperately so it’s good to see somebody taking the issue seriously.

Kraig Fox

I am the Founder and CEO of REKLAIM Credit Solutions, a commercial credit rating and reporting agency built specifically for the regulated cannabis industry.

Cannabis runs on trade credit, but companies throughout the supply chain have historically extended millions of dollars in unsecured terms without access to the commercial credit intelligence available in virtually every other major industry.

REKLAIM is being built to change that.

We combine cannabis-specific accounts receivable and payment history, public records, regulatory data and predictive analytics to help businesses evaluate commercial credit risk before extending terms — including credit scores, suggested credit limits, credit reports and ongoing monitoring.

My interest in the problem comes from both sides of the table.

I have spent more than a decade as an investor, advisor and operator in cannabis and more than 30 years building, operating, financing and consolidating businesses.

Earlier in my career I helped build companies that became part of iHeartMedia, Live Nation and Core Media. I subsequently held senior leadership and investment roles at Guggenheim Partners and Eldridge Industries and served as President and CEO of High Times.

Across that career I have overseen more than 100 M&A transactions representing more than $10 billion in aggregate transaction value through six public-company platforms.

More at https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-335-kraig-fox-reklaim-and-credit-reporting-for-cannabis-in-the-us-we-cant-keep-up-with-thd-phone-calls/

As the Curaleaf hostile gets ever more heated
I thought let's get Avis up in the tree with the Koalas as he has a better sense of feeling about these things than most of the rest of us.

First up,  Avis alerted me to the fact that today Boris has invited all Aurora shareholders to this webcast to lay out his plans.

Aurora shareholders can register for the live webcast hosted by Curaleaf Chairman and CEO Boris Jordan at grow.curaleaf. 

Webcast Details

Offer Context

The Bid: Curaleaf made an unsolicited offer to acquire Aurora Cannabis structured as 80% stock and 20% cash.
Tender Deadline: Aurora shareholders must tender their shares before December 1, 2026.
Action Required: Shareholders wishing to accept the offer should contact their broker or log in to their brokerage account to tender their shares.

We also touch on some of the other bigger known names in the game in the US. Trulieve, Cookies, Glasshouse and also how at Siva he is  now working with private companies and capital to create and build businesses who are looking at the long term.

https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-333-avis-bulbulyan-siva-ca-the-curaleaf-aurora-hostile-takeover-it-is-a-smart-play-off-a-week-target-and-in-the-end-a-european-medical-market-play/

New titles about cannabis keep on coming and when i found out about.. Ganja Matters: Empire & the Pursuits of Cannabis in British India.  I knew i had to speak to Dr. Utathya Chattopadhyaya.

Learn More
https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-333-dr-utathya-chattopadhyaya-assistant-professor-of-history-at-uni-of-california-santa-barbara-author-of-ganja-matters-empire-the-pursuits-of-cannabis-in-british-india/

To paraphrase the Lizard King

The west is the best
The west is the best
Get here and we’ll do the rest
The blue bus is calling us
The blue bus is calling us
Driver, where you taking us?

It’s time for Steve to move from DC and embrace California’s somewhat more accepting. (if slow) understanding of the future of medical cannabis.

Although, as always, the politicians were a little behind the 8 ball. “This is not medicine, this is a Cheech and Chong show.” General Barry McCaffrey (US Drug Czar)

We discuss

1996 California Proposition 215

The birth of Harborside

Harborside Health Center was founded in Oakland, California, in 2006 by cannabis activists and industry veterans Steve DeAngelo and Dress Wedding (along with Steve’s brother, Andrew DeAngelo)

Founding and Early Innovation

Steve also talks about run ins with the IRS as various agencies all pounded on the door for their pound of flesh

Also see 

https://www.clm.com/code-%C2%A7280e-planning-observations-harborside-case-hinges-on-definition-of-consists-of/

https://www.taxnotes.com/research/federal/court-documents/court-opinions-and-orders/ninth-circuit-affirms-tax-court-on-dispensarys-inventory-costs/52h0c

https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R46709

https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-332-the-deangelo-chronicles-part-7-the-west-is-the-best/

I spoke to Same last year about the policy work he is doing with multiple jurisdictions in the Caribbean.

He has now published the report

"From the Code Noir to GACP/GMP: Cannabis and the New Colonial Economy"

The Caribbean is dismantling prohibition. The harder task is ensuring that legal cannabis does not reproduce an older economic order in which the South grows the commodity while standards, capital, certification and value are controlled elsewhere.

In May 2026, France's National Assembly adopted at first reading a bill providing for the repeal of the Code Noir, the 1685 edict that helped organise slavery in France's American colonies. The measure is not yet final and remains in the parliamentary process. One detail of the debate, however, is revealing. The text uses the language of abrogation. An amendment proposed replacing that word with annulment. The distinction is not merely semantic. Abrogation removes a rule from the legal order. Nullity goes further by challenging its legal validity at the root. France used that stronger logic after the fall of the Vichy regime, including for measures that established or applied discrimination based on Jewish status. The amendment on the Code Noir was withdrawn, and the text retained the language of abrogation. [1][2][3]

There is no moral or legal equivalence between the Code Noir and modern cannabis standards such as Good Agricultural and Collection Practice or Good Manufacturing Practice. GACP and GMP are quality systems. The Code Noir belonged to a legal order of slavery. Nor is there a direct legal genealogy connecting them. The comparison is narrower and more useful. A society can remove a rule without necessarily dismantling the economic structures and relationships of power that developed around it.

That question matters for cannabis reform. Caribbean governments are gradually removing prohibition, creating regulators and writing the rules of legal markets. But ending criminalisation does not decide who will own the industry that replaces it, who will define quality, who will finance compliance or where the highest-value parts of the value chain will sit. The plant can become legal while its value chain remains externally controlled. That is the new colonial question.

We speak about the work he is doing with regulators throughout the region as well as the report and his websites including the International Society of Cannabis

Same is a prominent commentator and strategist who tracks the development of legal cannabis frameworks, market infrastructure, and regulatory rollouts across the region

https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-331-same-francis-the-caribbean-new-report-from-the-code-noir-to-gacp-gmp-cannabis-and-the-new-colonial-economy/

The koalas speak with Tia about the new organisation she is setting up with Linda Siboto (Cheeba) to take cannabis to the regions.

Cannabiz Africa have the background story

Cannabist ‘activist-entrepreneurs’ Tia Ramfate and Linda Siboto are behind the formation of a new grassroots cannabis organization, the TRCA. Their idea is to translate indigenous knowledge skills into entrepreneurship opportunities for rural and township cannabis businesses.

John Makoni, Africa Editor

Former Soweto Cannabis Association chair and AfuRaka Institute founder Tia Ramfate  and new U Grow business development director and Cheeba Africa co-founder, Linda Siboto, have set up the Township and Rural Cannabis Association (TRCA) with the aim of integrating indigenous knowledge skills into grassroots cannabis economies.

Learn more
https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-330-tia-ramfate-new-south-african-grassroots-cannabis-organization-launches-the-trca-township-and-rural-cannabis-association/

The koalas speak to Lelehnia about the report she has been working on for the past six years

REPORT AT A GLANCE - ONE PRESERVED SELECTION. MANY ENVIRONMENTS.

Ten completed Grow-Off samples documented differences in measured cannabinoid and terpene composition among samples from one preserved selection produced under independent cultivation conditions.

MEASURABLE VARIATION. A RECURRING THC-DOMINANT, MYRCENE-LED PATTERN.

Total THC ranged from 8.88% to 25.35%; total terpenes ranged from 0.58% to 1.78%, while the completed samples remained THC-dominant and myrcene-led.

VALUE BEYOND POTENCY.

Among the ten respondents who answered the primary-choice question in a small exploratory consumer survey, none selected THC percentage as the primary reason for interest.

PEOPLE, HISTORY, AND RESPONSIBILITY.

The project combines scientific evidence with provenance, community knowledge, consent, and ethical stewardship.

WHAT THIS REPORT INCLUDES

PROVENANCE • GENETIC RESEARCH • LABORATORY DATA GROW-OFF • CONSUMER RESEARCH • ETHICAL FRAMEWORK

Executive Summary 

The Humboldt Legacy Project was launched by Humboldt Grace in 2020 to explore ethical and practical ways to protect, document, and value cannabis genetics and the knowledge connected to them. HLP Skunk #1 became the project’s first cultivar-level case study.

The work centered on two preserved selections donated to the project: HLP Skunk #1 No. 1 and HLP Skunk #1 No. 3. HendRx Farm served as the primary preservation partner. No. 1 supported consumer research and was later lost as living material. Both selections were registered through Canopyright; No. 3 was used for DNA-supported lineage research and the multi-farm Grow-Off. Distinguishing the selections was essential because findings from one plant cannot automatically be assigned to the other or to every plant sold as Skunk #1.

The project combined historical research and private interviews with David Watson; provenance and acquisition records; whole-genome sequencing through Medicinal Genomics; a THC synthase gene comparison; Canopyright distributed-ledger registration; cultivation by independent growers; cannabinoid, terpene, and exploratory thiol testing through Infinite Chemical Analysis Labs; consumer research; educational programming; and finished-concentrate analysis involving ArcataX, Lightwork Distributors, and SC Labs. Twenty-nine farms and cultivators registered for the Grow-Off, and ten completed samples were represented in the primary Certificate of Analysis dataset. The research was community-led and conducted with approximately $1,463 in direct cash funding, extensive volunteer labor, and donated professional services.

The scientific work contributed useful evidence, but it did not provide a complete answer. HLP Skunk #1 No. 3 showed consistency with the Weiblen Skunk #1 reference at the THC synthase gene examined. This supports continued investigation of the reported lineage; it does not prove complete cultivar identity, ownership, authenticity, or chain of custody. The project therefore uses the language “DNA-supported lineage research” rather than claiming that a laboratory test authenticated all of Skunk #1.

 Read more: ⁠https://cannabislaw.report/wp-admin/post.php?post=288782&action=edit⁠

Anybody involved with keeping up to date with all things cannabis will have seen the recent plethora of media reports saying that cannabis poisonings are inundating ER departments. But what is the reality behind the headlines?What are the numbers?

What are the numbers?

Ruth analysed publicly available data for California since 2016 and unsurprisingly the results show a more nuanced, complex narrative where context is key.

Listen, read the report  https://cannabislaw.report/karma-koala-podcast-328-ruth-fisher-behind-the-scare-headlines-ruth-takes-a-close-look-at-the-data-on-california-cannabis-related-poisonings-since-2016/