Global Ganja Report

Barely a week goes by without a scandal involving a New Mexico law enforcement officer making the headlines in the state. Angelo Vega, the former police chief of the border town of Columbus, pleads guilty to extortion and trafficking arms destined for La Linea criminal organization, one of the protagonists in the so-called Mexican drug wars.

The Dutch government announced Oct. 7 that it will reclassify high-potency cannabis, placing it in the same category as hard drugs, claiming that THC levels in the strains have dramatically increased over the past generation. The move means that coffee shops will be required to remove the popular potent varieties from their shelves. Dutch politicians say high-strength strains, locally dubbed "skunk," are more dangerous than cannabis of a generation ago. Economic Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen said that in the future, anything containing more than 15% THC will be treated the same as cocaine and ecstasy.

The four United States attorneys for California came together at a Sacramento press conference Oct. 7 to announce that they would move against landlords who rent space to storefront operators of medicinal cannabis dispensaries. Breaking with past practice, they actually addressed the state's medical marijuana law—only to say that it is being abused by a fast-growing cannabis industry. "This is not what the California voters intended or authorized,” said André Birotte Jr., US attorney for the Los Angeles-based Central District. "It is illegal under California law."

Federal prosecutors this week warned several  California cannabis dispensaries they must close in 45 days or face criminal charges and confiscation of their property. At least 16 dispensaries or their landlords received letters stating that they are in violation of federal law. The Associated Press obtained copies of the letters that a prosecutor sent to 12 San Diego dispensaries. They state that federal law "takes precedence over state law and applies regardless of the particular uses for which a dispensary is selling and distributing marijuana."

The IRS has ordered Oakland's Harborside Health Center, biggest cannabis dispensary on the West Coast, to pay $2 million in taxes, ruling that the collective may not deduct standard expenses such as payroll and rent. "They're attempting to tax us out of business," protested owner Steve DeAngelo. Ironically, the same day he received the IRS letter, DeAngelo was photographed handing the Oakland treasury a $360,000 check —third installment of $1 million in city taxes  Harborside generated in 2010.

A park in Mexico City sports a small book stall known as the Biblioteca Canábica, or the Cannabis Library—part of an attempt by civil society groups to disseminate reliable information about illegal drugs for parents, teachers and youth. It's also a small way of raising the volume on a debate that is growing ever louder in Mexico: whether to legalize drugs.  "We want a healthier relationship with drugs," said Carlos Zamudio, director of the Cannabis Library project. "[T]he relationship we have now has brought us problems with violence and health. A healthier relationship requires regulating drugs in a different way."

Noel Salgueiro Nevarez AKA "El Flaco" (Skinny), the Sinaloa Cartel's top boss in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, was captured by army troops Oct. 5 in Culiacán, Sinaloa, in what authorities called a precise operation with no shots fired. El Flaco's arrest "affects the leadership structure, as well as the operational capabilities," of the Sinaloa network in Chihuahua, the Defense Secretariat and Prosecutor General's office said in a joint statement. He is said to be the leader of a criminal gang called the Gente Nueva (New People), which serves as a local enforcement arm of the Sinaloa Cartel (also known as the Pacific Cartel) in Chihuahua. However, the cartel's maximum boss, Joaquín Guzmán AKA "El Chapo" (Shorty), still remains at large. (EFE, Borderland Beat, Oct. 5)

Oregon landlord and insurance agent Keith Rogers is protesting that some 30 DEA agents broke down doors on his five houses in Gold Hill Sept. 29, pointed guns at his wife, uprooted hundreds of plants and seized shotguns, cell phones and a tractor. He says he made sure the 20 people he allowed to grow cannabis on his property had checked out under Oregon's medical marijuana law. If state agents had searched his properties, "they would have happily drove off and did nothing," he said. Instead, "it was strictly DEA. They are throwing their weight around and saying the voters of Oregon don't have any rights."