Global Ganja Report

The New Mexico Department of Health is expanding its medical cannabis program with the approval of six new non-profits to produce the herb for patients. This brings the total number of such producers to 17. There are currently 2,807 medical cannabis patients, with 1,266 of those having individual permits to grow for personal use.

Police in the New Zealand capital of Wellington are weighing charges against a group of protesters who invaded the city's central police station with a cart full of burning cannabis. The activists had been demonstrating on the parliament grounds by smoking openly in front of police and security, as party of an ongoing civil disobedience campaign.

Some 30,000 Dutch households have started receiving cannabis-scented scratchcards in an effort to uncover illegal plantations. Authorities in Rotterdam and The Hague say they are distributing the cards to help citizens recognize what cannabis plants smell like. The cards also include a telephone number to report suspected cannabis growing. (BBC News, Nov. 11)

Medicinal cannabis advocates pleaded before the San Jose City Council Nov. 9 for a halt to raids they say have sent fear through providers and patients alike. Drug agents in recent weeks have raided three local dispensaries. Several other collectives, including the San Jose branch of Harborside Health Center, have temporarily closed, fearing further raids. "How can you sit up there and take my rights away?" asked a tearful Aisha Alexander, 36, who told the Council she uses cannabis to relieve breast cancer symptoms.

An El Dorado County doctor and her attorney husband lost a bid before the US Ninth Circuit appeals court in San Francisco Nov. 8 to overturn their convictions and five-year sentences for growing what they said was medical cannabis. Attorney Dale Schafer began growing marijuana for his wife, physician Marion "Mollie" Fry, on their property in the town of Cool in 1998. She had secured a doctor's recommendation for the drug to ease the effects of chemotherapy following breast cancer surgery.

Medical marijuana patients and advocates will descend on the Nov. 9 San Jose City Council meeting to convey their disapproval of raids on cannabis dispensaries in their community. Over the past month, the Santa Clara County Specialized Enforcement Team has carried out several raids on dispensaries in the city, the most recent of which occurred Nov. 4. After the City Council meeting, advocates will host a "Know Your Rights" training and a meeting to develop a raid alert system.

Voters in more than a dozen Massachusetts legislative districts backed dramatic expansions to legal access to cannabis in the Nov. 2 elections, and advocates plan to use the results to press lawmakers. Nine of 18 advisory questions placed on the ballot queried voters on medical marijuana, while another nine backed legalizing cannabis outright, allowing the state to regulate and tax it.

Steve Cooley, Republican candidate for state attorney general in California, was a little too quick to declare victory on election night—as the count continues, he trails his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris by at least 12,000 votes. The race is so close that it will very likely take several more weeks to call a winner, because over 2.3 million late or provisional ballots must be counted by the end of the month. A backpedaling Cooley said, "It's one of those Dewey moments."