Global Ganja Report

For the first time in nearly 20 years, a US Court of Appeals is set to hear oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the federal government's classification of cannabis as a dangerous drug with no medicinal value: Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration. This historic case will force a federal court to finally review the scientific evidence regarding the therapeutic efficacy of cannabis. During a press briefing Oct. 4, plaintiffs in the case, along with leading medical researchers and clinicians, spoke by conference call about the necessity of the federal government recognizing current scientific data supporting marijuana rescheduling. Cannabis is currently classified in the same category as heroin despite calls from scientists, medical professionals, and policy makers to reschedule the plant for medical use.

For 28 years, the now-defunct state Campaign Against Marijuana Planting (CAMP) sent teams of state, federal and local officers aboard helicopters into Northern California's remote forests to hunt down and destroy cannabis grows. But this year, Gov. Jerry Brown cut CAMP from the state budget. The program has been restructured under direct federal leadership—and the new moniker of Cannabis Eradication and Reclamation Team (CERT). The DEA and other federal agencies are now working with local law enforcement, with no involvement from the effectively shuttered state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement.

The Arkansas Supreme Court announced Sept. 27 that it will allow the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act  ballot initiative to go before the voters in November. The decision came in a suit brought by the Coalition to Preserve Arkansas Values (CPAV), which argued that the initiative text was "insufficient" as the full ballot title of the act is 384 words long and that "voters will not have adequate time in the voting booth to be reasonably advised on the impact of the Act." CPAV also claimed that the initiative would have been contrary to the US and Arkansas constitutions. In denying the  CPAV's claims, the court found that the text is free of "misleading tendencies or partisan coloring," and that the summary "informs the voters in an intelligible, honest and impartial manner" about what the measure would do.

Federal authorities on Sept. 25 took legal action against over 70 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles County— sending warning letters to 68  properties, filing forfeiture suits against three, and serving search warrants at another three.  "Over the past several years, we have seen an explosion of commercial marijuana stores—an explosion that is being driven by the massive profits associated with marijuana distribution," said US Attorney André Birotte Jr in a statement.  "As today's operations make clear, the sale and distribution of marijuana violates federal law, and we intend to enforce the law. Even those stores not targeted today should understand that they cannot continue to profit in violation of the law." The statement said the targets include "all known marijuana stores in the Eagle Rock and downtown areas of Los Angeles, as well as the single store known to be operating in Huntington Park." (LAT, LA Weekly, Sept. 25)

Six men accused of murdering 13 crew members of two Chinese merchant ships on the Mekong River last year pleaded guilty Sept. 20 at their trial in Kunming, capital of China's Yunnan province. The defendants included Naw Kham (also rendered Nor Kham), purportedly one of the most powerful warlords in the Golden Triangle opium-growing region that straddles the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos. The crew were massacred by an armed gang that attacked two cargo ships last October. Chinese media said the gang was involved in kidnapping as well as international drug running.

In a new kind of cannabis crackdown in California's Nevada County, a special team of deputies is going door-to-door to make sure medical marijuana growers are following the law. The policy, ostensibly in response to some 200 complaints from neighbors, follows a new county ordinance. "The ordinance was designed to improve the quality of life in Nevada County," said Sgt. Guy Selleck of the Nevada County Sheriff's Department. "The complaints were basically driven from the odors of marijuana."

Speaking before a crowd on the Boston Common at the 23rd Boston Freedom Rally Sept. 15, US Rep. Barney Frank said using cannabis is an individual choice that should not be criminalized. Frank said he has "been fighting for some time for a measure that will reduce crime very substantially," and will actually "make money for the government." Frank told the crowd: "We can reduce the crime rate by stop treating people as criminals because they have made the decision to smoke marijuana personally."

The Montana Supreme Court ruled Sept. 11 that there is no fundamental right to cultivation, distribution or use of medical marijuana. Plaintiffs in the case sought to block enactment of a 2011 law, SB 423, a more restrictive measure that repealed an earlier law permitting the use of  medical  marijuana in the Big Sky state. Plaintiffs asserted that the new law violates rights of employment, health and privacy guaranteed by Montana's constitution. But the justices did not agree, with Justice Michael Wheat writing: "In pursuing one's own health, an individual has a fundamental right to obtain and reject medical treatment... But, this right does not extend to give a patient a fundamental right to use any drug, regardless of its legality."