Global Ganja Report

Starting July 6, the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS) will hold its 21st annual symposium in St. Charles, Ill., just outside of Chicago. Notably, this year's symposium is sponsored by an array of pharmaceutical companies, the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and ElSohly Laboratories of Oxford, Miss., the federal government's only licensed source of research-grade cannabis.

Deputy US Attorney General James Cole issued a controversial memorandum June 29 in an attempt to clarify federal policy on medical marijuana. Calling cannabis "a dangerous drug," Cole's memo threatened enforcement actions against "Persons who are in the business of cultivating, selling or distributing marijuana, and those who knowingly facilitate such activities," including local and state officials. The memo further underscored that "State laws or local ordinances are not a defense to civil or criminal enforcement of federal law."

The Dutch government's plan to stop tourists from purchasing cannabis was apparently set back June 29 by a decision by the country's top legal advisory body. The Council of State, ruling on a 2006 Maastricht ordinance barring foreigners from "coffee shops," said the city had overstepped its authority, because cannabis sale is already theoretically illegal in the Netherlands by national law—even if under the law goes virtually unenforced under the country's tolerance policy.

The Amsterdam city council, backed by the tourist board and local campaigners, is opposing a new law proposed by the Dutch government that would ban foreigners from frequenting the city's cannabis-serving coffee shops by 2012. "If tourists are denied access to coffee shops, illegal sales and drug dealing on the streets of Amsterdam will increase," warned Mayor Eberhard van der Laan. "Amsterdam does not want to facilitate soft drug use by tourists, but to help those who wish to use drugs to do so as responsibly as possible."

Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, who has led a national protest movement against the militarization of the "drug war" since losing his son to narco-violence earlier this year, met at the Federal District's Chapultepec Castle with President Felipe Calderón June 23, accompanied by some 20 other survivors of violence. After more than three hours of dialogue with Sicilia and his delegation, Calderón said he was open to "reviewing" his security strategy. He also said he accepted their proposal to create a commission to "work on behalf of the victims." The president agreed to meet again in three months with the poet.

Unlikely political bedfellows Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) and Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced a first-of-its-kind bill June 23 that would end the federal prohibition on cannabis. The legislation is modeled after the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, which repealed the federal prohibition on alcohol and handed responsibility for regulating it to the states. Frank said "he's not advocating marijuana use, but believes that criminal prosecution is a waste of resources and an intrusion on personal freedom." The bill is co-sponsored by Reps. John Conyers (D-MI), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Jared Polis (D-CO), and Barbara Lee (D-CA).

More than 65 women have been murdered so far this year in the northern Mexican state of Nuevo León, according to the Mexican daily La Jornada. The victims included pregnant women and nine underage girls; the majority had been sexually abused before they were killed, and some had been tortured. Several of the corpses were dismembered. Northern Mexico is especially affected by drug-related violence, much of it from wars between drug cartels that have intensified since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa began militarizing the fight against traffickers in December 2006. Mexican analysts say this "drug war" fuels violence against women in the region.

In what authorities call a dispute over control of drug trafficking routes and timber resources, paramilitaries linked to organized crime have used death threats and violence to cause a general exodus of the campesino community of La Laguna, in Coyuca de Catalán municipality of southern Mexico's Guerrero state. In a caravan of seven trucks, 30 adults, the majority women and elders, with 77 children, fled the night of April 21 from the hamlet in the Sierra Madre del Sur to Puerto Las Ollas, some five hours away on rugged mountain roads. There they remain, having been granted refuge by local residents.