Global Ganja Report

Lebanon's hashish heartland of the Bekaa Valley, hit by rocket-fire from Syria on June 1, has become increasingly embroiled in the civil war raging across the border. The fertile valley, which was occupied by Syria from 1976 to 2005, is a patchwork of Sunni and Shi'ite areas, and during Lebanon's civil war in 1980s the hashish and opium trade there funded sectarian militias. There are now ominous signs of a return to this deadly rivalry. In late March, gunmen from the Sunni town of Arsal—a conduit for arms and fighters for the Syrian rebels—kidnapped a member of the powerful Shi'ite Jaafar tribe, who was absconded across the border to the rebel-held Syrian town of Yabroud, north of Damascus. The Jaafars retaliated by kidnapping six Arsal residents—ransoming them to raise the ransom money to free their comrade held in Yabroud. Lebanese security forces helped oversee the hostage exchange, and no charges were brought. Arsal has also been the target of occasional cross-border shelling, presumably by the Syrian military. On May 27, unidentified gunmen attacked a Lebanese border checkpoint near the town, killing three soldiers.

Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado on May 28 signed a new set of laws regulating the use and sale of cannabis. One law, HB13-1317, expands the medical marijuana enforcement division to cover retail cannabis sales. The law also prohibits retail cannabis outlets from selling more than one-fourth of an ounce to non-residents. Another law, HB13-1318, still subject to voter approval in the November statewide election, imposes a 15% sales tax on retail cannabis or cannabis products, and allocates 10% of the total tax revenue among the state's local governments that have at least one retail cannabis outlet. A third law, HB13-1325, provides that motorists found to have blood levels of five nanograms or more of delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol per milliliter may be charged for DUI.

Police on May 23 arrested four in raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in Southern Oregon. Medford Police Chief Tim George said the arrests followed a two-year investigation in which undercover police purchased cannabis outside the law governing medical marijuana. The Oregon medical marijuana allows growers to recover only their expenses, and nothing to cover their labor or a profit. Oregon's Mail Tribune reports that among the four was Lori Duckworth, executive director of Southern Oregon NORML.

An overwhelming 63% of Los Angeles voters passed Measure D on May 21, bringing long-awaited regulations to the city's medical marijuana dispensaries. Measure D, which was placed on the ballot earlier this year by the Los Angeles City Council, will provide "limited immunity" to more than a hundred dispensaries currently operating in the city. Voters approved a set of regulations yesterday that would permit the operation of certain dispensaries registered with the city since September 2007, as long as they comply with certain city-imposed requirements.

As US Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a commencement speech May 11 for UC Berkeley law school graduates, a plane flew overhead with a banner that read "Holder: End Rx Cannabis War. #Peace4Patients," in protest against recent actions by the Justice Department (DoJ) in the Bay Area. Outside the Hearst Greek Theater, where Holder gave his speech, medical marijuana advocates also handed out fake DoJ recruitment flyers, detailing how the Obama Administration is engaging in harmful tactics that are adversely affecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients in California.

The California Supreme Court ruled May 6 in the case City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patients Health and Wellness Center that local governments may ban the distribution of medical marijuana and are not preempted by state law by doing so. However, the court also recognized the legality of dispensaries, more than 1,000 of which currently exist and operate throughout the state. More than 50 localities in California officially regulate the distribution of medical marijuana.

"The social sharing of a small amount of marijuana" by immigrants lawfully in the US does not require their automatic deportation, the Supreme Court ruled April 23. "Sharing a small amount of marijuana for no remuneration, let alone possession with intent to do so, does not fit easily into the everyday understanding of trafficking, which ordinarily means some sort of commercial dealing," Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for a seven-justice majority. 

Gunfire erupted at Colorado's annual 420 Rally—the first since the state voted to legalize cannabis least year—injuring two people and scattering a crowd of thousands in Denver's Civic Center Park. A man and woman were shot in the leg, and a third grazed with a bullet. Both victims are in their 20s. They were taken to Denver Health Medical Center. Police asked attendees for possible photo or video footage of the shootings, and had no immediate motive. Witnesses described a jovial scene quickly turning to panic. Some thought firecrackers were going off, until a man fell bleeding, his dog also shot.