Global Ganja Report

Medical marijuana patients and their supporters will rally in front of the federal building in Sacramento June 20 at 1:30 PM to protest a raid last week on the city's first permitted dispensary. On June 11, El Camino Wellness Center was raided by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and shut down, after having served thousands of Sacramento patients since 2008. Though no charges have been filed against the dispensary operators, the Internal Revenue Service has seized the facility's bank accounts. 

A mother from California's Butte County appeared in court for a preliminary hearing June 11 to determine whether she should stand trial for breastfeeding her children while being a user of medical cannabis. Advocates have rallied around the case of Daisy Bram, 30, contending that she faces excessive prosecution on charges of felony child abuse and misdemeanor child endangerment stemming from a raid by county authorities on her home garden.  

Patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) has discovered that a second patient at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center has been denied a transplant in the past year because of medical marijuana use. In response, ASA sent a letter June 11 to the Cedars-Sinai Transplant Center on behalf of Toni Trujillo, a qualified medical marijuana patient who was removed from the kidney transplant list earlier this year. Trujillo has had kidney problems for most of her life and has been on dialysis for the past five years, since an existing kidney transplant began failing. The letter urges the world-renowned hospital to promptly re-list Trujillo and change its policy on medical marijuana.

New York's Gov. Andrew Cuomo held an Albany press conference June 4 to announce that he will ask state lawmakers to make possession of cannabis "in public view" a violation—essentially, the same as simple possession of under an ounce in the Empire State. Having the herb "in public view" is currently a misdemeanor, which is exploited by New York City police to rack up arrests in so-called "stop-and-frisks" by spooking citizens into displaying their stash—an illegal practice that has been the focus of a recent controversy. Cuomo's proposal immediately won the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, his top prosecutors and—amazingly—the New York Police Department.

In a 41-28 vote, the California State Assembly passed a bill May 31 to regulate the production and distribution of medical marijuana for qualified patients. Responding to calls from local officials, the State Supreme Court, and Attorney General Kamala Harris, the state legislature took a significant step toward clarifying the often-confusing terrain of medical marijuana distribution in California. AB 2312, the Medical Marijuana Regulate, Control and Tax Act, was introduced earlier this year by Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) and others.

Patient advocates applauded Gov. Dannel Malloy June 1 for signing the country's 17th state medical marijuana law. "We are encouraged that state officials are standing up to federal intimidation and moving ahead with the passage of important public health laws," said Steph Sherer, director of Americans for Safe Access (ASA), which worked with local advocates to help pass the Connecticut law. "We hope other states follow Connecticut's lead in passing medical marijuana laws so that patients are not left unprotected and vulnerable to law enforcement actions."

Jimmy Díaz Burbano, governor of Colombia's Putumayo admitted that large areas of the lowland jungle department were shut down by a "paro armado"—a civil strike enforced by the guns of the FARC guerillas. He said the strike had been called in response to government spraying of the glyphosate herbicide across the territory along the Río Putumayo to wipe out coca leaf crops. Díaz said spraying hurts the campesinos and provokes a reaction from the illegal armed groups they sell their coca to, calling for a dialogue on the issue. "I will be a bridge between the community and the Colombian state and do everything possible to assure that the people are heard," he said. (Diario del Sur, Nariño, May 29)

In a victory for medical marijuana patients, the California Supreme Court on May 23 denied review of an important dispensary case out of Los Angeles. Rejecting calls from State Attorney General Kamala Harris and law enforcement to review a 2nd District Court of Appeal ruling in People v. Colvin, the high court upheld certain protections for patients and providers. The Attorney General had argued that some undefined percentage of patients were legally required to participate in the operation of the medical marijuana dispensaries in order to obtain medication from them.