For the Culture By The Culture
California just bragged about hauling in over half a billion dollars in cannabis tax revenue this year. Behind the headlines, growers are bleeding out under crushing taxes, defaults, and broken promises. The state pockets the cash while farms fold and the underground market thrives. Outlaw cannabis journalism tells the story others won’t.
Thailand has lived a century of cannabis politics in less than a decade. From medical legalization in 2018 to decriminalization in 2022, a crackdown in 2025, and now the Cannabis King himself taking power as Prime Minister, the story is wild, contradictory, and global. Outlaw culture has found its throne in Southeast Asia.
This week’s Reefer Report Card tracks chaos in Texas, Ohio, and Nebraska, plus international heat checks. Texas failed to ban hemp but criminalized vapes, Ohio towns blocked shops despite legalization, and Nebraska strangled access before patients got medicine. Switzerland moves toward retail while Thailand’s new prime minister brings cannabis reform back into focus.
Google’s Canadian pilot program allowing cannabis ads exposes the deep hypocrisy in U.S. policy. While alcohol and gambling flood media, cannabis remains censored, costing legal businesses billions and reinforcing stigma. This shift could signal the start of global change.
Thailand went from Asia’s most progressive cannabis market to pulling the plug in just three years. What began as a billion-dollar boom is now being dismantled by new laws, political shifts, and narcotic reclassification. Farmers, shop owners, and patients face an uncertain future as the government rewrites the rules and erases the promised era.
California legalized cannabis cafés in name only. Thanks to overregulation, local opposition, and bureaucratic delay, most cities never let them open. While licensed operators drown in red tape, underground lounges are thriving. This deep dive exposes how AB 1775 became another empty promise and why the social side of weed culture is being crushed by process and fear
