For the Culture By The Culture
The Netherlands is finally confronting its cannabis hypocrisy. After decades of letting coffee shops sell weed sourced from the black market, the Dutch government is expanding a state-run program that licenses legal growers. The plan could eliminate contamination, crush the illicit trade, and restore integrity to the nation that once sold the world on tolerance but never practiced it.
A hundred years after the 1925 International Opium Convention first outlawed cannabis, prohibition still stands as one of the biggest policy failures in modern history. From colonial fear and racist propaganda to Nixon’s drug war and global treaties, the cost has been human lives, stolen freedom, and wasted truth. The plant survived. The lies didn’t.
This week’s cannabis report card runs the gamut: Ohio hits $3B in sales while federal reform stays stuck, Connecticut raids smoke shops, and California wipes out 21,000 plants in public land raids. The lone bright spot comes from Thailand, where the new Prime Minister pledged support for reform. One win, too many failures.
Reefer Report Card Vol. 14 grades the week in weed. Texas killed its hemp ban but raised the age gate, New York’s equity rules collapsed in court, Ohio towns stalled legalization, Nebraska strangled patients before launch, and Thailand’s new PM carries a cannabis legacy without clear promises.
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.
