At least 11 states racked up medical and adult-use cannabis sales over $1 billion in 2024.

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Joining the team of NBCUniversal, Snoop Dogg is on deck to cover the Olympic Games Paris 2024 this summer. Snoop will relocate to Paris to provide regular reports for the Olympic Primetime Show, which is scheduled to begin on July 26 on NBC and Peacock. 

According to a Dec. 31 announcement, Snoop is scheduled to join NBC Olympics host Mike Tirico and provide American primetime viewers with his own unique spin on the Olympics in Paris. He’s scheduled to do rounds of the city’s notable landmarks, attend Olympic competitions and events, and visit with the athletes, their friends, and families.

“I grew up watching the Olympics and am thrilled to see the incredible athletes bring their A-game to Paris. It’s a celebration of skill, dedication, and the pursuit of greatness,” said Snoop Dogg. “We’re going to have some amazing competitions and, of course, I will be bringing that Snoop style to the mix. It’s going to be the most epic Olympics ever, so stay tuned, and keep it locked. Let’s elevate, celebrate, and make these games unforgettable, smoke the competition, and may the best shine like gold. Peace and Olympic LOVE, ya dig?” 

His upcoming role as an Olympic announcer was first announced on New Year’s Eve during halftime of Sunday Night Football’s coverage of the Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings on NBC and Peacock.

Snoop joined Kevin Hart to cover the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, however the COVID pandemic put a major damper in the game activities, and Snoop’s coverage was a small highlight amid a notably quiet Olympics year. Now with the pandemic out of the way, he’s doing it again.

“Snoop is already an Olympic gold medal commentator, generating tens of millions of views for his highlights commentary on Peacock of the dressage competition during the Tokyo Olympics,” said Molly Solomon, Executive Producer and President, NBC Olympics Production. “That performance alone has earned Snoop a job as our Special Correspondent in Paris. We don’t know what the heck is going to happen every day, but we know he will add his unique perspective to our re-imagined Olympic primetime show.”

Snoop as a narrator came front-and-center several years ago when programmers ingeniously cast him as the narrator for Planet Earth and Planet Earth II, aka Plizzanet Earth. It was a big hit.

On New Year’s Eve, during halftime of Sunday Night Football, Snoop starred in a “Snoop Year’s Eve” promotional video for the Paris Olympics. In a 75-second video, Snoop jokes with Team USA athletes Suni Lee (gymnastics), A’ja Wilson (basketball), Jagger Eaton (skateboarder), and duo Kelly Cheng and Sara Hughes (beach volleyball) about their past wins and defeats in the Olympics. The content was shot last November at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, California as part of NBCUniversal’s promotional shoot for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Olympics in Paris Plan a Few New Things

Scheduled for Paris this summer, the world’s greatest athletes will go head-to-head in Paris where the modern Olympic Games (as opposed to the Ancient Roman Olympics) were conceived 130 years ago. This will be the third time Paris has hosted the Olympics—the last times being 1900 and 1924—tying London for the city with the most years as a Summer Games host. Los Angeles (1932, 1984) will tie those two cities when it hosts the first Summer Games in the U.S. in 32 years in 2028.

The organizers of Paris 2024 plan to do a few new things this year to make them more accessible to the public and to showcase the city: First, competitions will be held adjacent to iconic landmarks in Paris, for instance with beach volleyball near the Eiffel Tower, equestrian at the Palace of Versailles, and urban sports at Place de la Concorde. Organizers think this will make the games more attractive to people from different walks of life.

Last May, NBCUniversal announced that the NBC broadcast network and streaming service Peacock will be the company’s primary platforms for its coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, which is scheduled for July 26-Aug. 11. Click on the NBCUniversal website for more programming information and here for information about the Paralympics, which will take place Aug. 28 – Sept. 8.

NBCU owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, which are scheduled for Paris (2024), Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032). The host city for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games has not yet been chosen.

This year, with the addition of Snoop Dogg and notable Parisian landmarks, Olympics organizers hope to bump up the ratings.

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Despite the failure of a recreational marijuana legalization measure to gain the approval of a majority of voters in last month’s midterm elections, activists in South Dakota are already planning for a new bid to legalize adult-use cannabis in 2024. 

The group South Dakotans for Better Marijuana Laws has taken the first official step to launch a new cannabis legalization bid for 2024 by filing a draft of the proposed ballot initiative with the state’s Legislative Research Council, according to media reports. The move comes less than two months after a recreational pot legalization measure known as Initiated Measure 27 failed at the polls in the November elections, garnering just over 47% of ballots cast.

If it had been passed, Measure 27 would have legalized the possession and use of cannabis and marijuana paraphernalia. The ballot initiative also would have allowed adults 21 and older to possess or distribute up to one ounce of marijuana. Those living in a jurisdiction without a licensed marijuana retailer would have been allowed to grow up to three cannabis plants in a secure location at home.

Activists who campaigned for this year’s unsuccessful ballot proposal believe that the lower voter participation typical of midterm elections compared to those that include a race for U.S. president may have been a factor in the defeat of Measure 27.

“We think the only reason it lost is because of really low turnout… we are eager to restore the will of the people,” said Matthew Schweich, deputy director of South Dakotans for Better Marijuana laws, which also led the campaign to pass the 2022 cannabis legalization ballot measure.

The failure of Initiative 27 came despite a similar proposal gaining a solid majority of votes only two years earlier, when President Joseph Biden beat his predecessor Donald Trump at the polls. A 2020 ballot measure to legalize adult-use cannabis passed with 54% of the vote, but a legal challenge supported by Republican Governor Kristi Noem led to the state Supreme Court invalidating the measure on procedural grounds.

Cannabis Reform Opponents Also Preparing For 2024

Opponents of cannabis reform believe that the issue of recreational marijuana legalization has already been settled at the polls, despite the invalidated successful ballot measure only two years ago. Republican state Representative Fred Deutsch, who also serves as the treasurer for the cannabis prohibitionist group Protecting South Dakota Kids, is opposed to another bid to legalize marijuana in the 2024 elections.

“They brought it, and they brought it, and they brought it… they said we should respect the will of the voters throughout the campaign,” said Deutsch. “Well, apparently, they are not going to respect the will of the voters… and they are going to bring it back again.” 

Deutsch added that he intends to sponsor a bill in the next legislative session that would prohibit similar initiatives from being placed on the ballot in consecutive election cycles. Additionally, Protecting South Dakota Kids plans to create a nonprofit group with the same name and hire a lobbyist to work in the state capital full-time during the 2023 legislative session in order to counter the efforts of cannabis reform advocates.

“This last year in Pierre, the pro-marijuana lobbyists outgunned us five to one, six to one… I didn’t count them, but they were swarming the Capitol,” said Deutsch. “The marijuana industry puts a lot of money into hiring these guys, and we hope to push back just a little bit.”

Proponents of another attempt to legalize adult-use cannabis in South Dakota believe that the success of the measure is likely to hinge on the ability of activists to raise the money to mount an effective race in 2024. Media reports cite “lackluster fundraising” as a factor in this year’s loss.

“The biggest hurdle is making sure you can run a well-funded campaign, and it is too early to say whether we can or can’t,” said Schweich. “But we are going to try and move through the process and build up a network of people who can donate generously and make sure that we do have a well-funded campaign.”

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Hip-hop artist and cannabis community icon Afroman announced over the weekend that he is running for president of the United States in 2024. Afroman, who became a hero of the weed crowd with his song “Because I Got High” in 2000, announced his bid for the White House on Sunday during a concert performance at the Black River Coliseum in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, according to a report from TMZ. Two days later, he took to social media to spread his message to a broader audience.

“My Fellow Americans, there comes a time in the course of human events when change must be affected,” Afroman wrote on Instagram on Tuesday. “That time is now. Americans are suffering, and the status quo is no longer acceptable. Inflation is out of control. The economy is in shambles. The housing market is staggering. Politicians are corrupt. Bad apples are allowed to remain in law enforcement, amongst our noble and brave officers.”

“It is my immense honor and pleasure to formally announce Afroman as an independent candidate for President of the United States of America,” he added.

Afroman, aka Joseph Edgar Foreman, was born in Los Angeles in 1974 and got an early start in the music business by recording songs and selling them to his classmates by the time he was in eighth grade. He released his first album in 1998 before relocating to Mississippi, where he made contacts in the music business who would eventually produce and perform on “Because I Got High.” The song, which detailed how marijuana could interfere with the chores of modern life, became a hit in 2001, the year the track was featured in films including Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. Afroman released his latest album, Lemon Pound Cake, in September.

Afroman Pledges To Be ‘Cannabis Commander in Chief’

Referring to himself as the “Cannabis Commander in Chief” and the “Pot Head of State” in his social media post, Afroman promised to make cannabis reform and other issues a priority of his campaign for president.

“Medicinal plants are criminalized, while pharmaceutical companies enrich themselves on chemicals with unknown side effects,” he wrote. “The media sows the seeds of hatred 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. They attempt to divide based on race, religion, gender, sexual preference, and every other category that they can think of.”

In a separate post on Instagram, Afroman outlined eight priorities for his 2024 presidential campaign. First and foremost was decriminalizing cannabis and “other substances with low harm profiles.” He noted that federal law still classifies marijuana as a Schedule I substance, the strictest classification under the nation’s drug laws. He promised change, saying he would deschedule and decriminalize cannabis and launch a public service ad campaign to publicize the benefits of the plant.

Afroman also pledged to make criminal justice reforms, noting that more than 40,000 people are incarcerated for cannabis at any given time, at a cost of more than $1.5 billion per year. He committed to commuting the sentences of all nonviolent federal cannabis prisoners and said he would “work hard to right the wrongs of the past, in all areas where Americans have been failed within the criminal justice system.”

He also called for law enforcement reforms, an end to all foreign aid, and reparations for African Americans. Other priorities of the campaign include tax breaks for professional athletes to encourage celebratory displays, the legalization of prostitution, and the “promotion of unity, peace, and love.”

“We need a candidate that is truly elected by the people, and for the people. We need a man that can step up and lead with a firm hand,” wrote Afroman. “The people are starved for a Commander in Chief, that leads from a place of love and not hate. In these dark times, we need a leader that truly embodies the American dream.”

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