Global Ganja Report

On April 2, a bipartisan group of legislators from five medical marijuana states—California, Colorado, Maine, New Mexico, and Washington—issued an open letter to President Barack Obama opposing the federal crackdown and calling upon his administration to "respect our state laws." The lawmakers underscored that such an aggressive policy "makes no sense" and is "not a good use of our resources," recalling Obama's original pledge to de-emphasize enforcement in states with medical marijuana laws.

A coalition of medical marijuana patients, activists, dispensing centers, and concerned citizens has compelled public officials to stand up to recent federal attacks. Last week, the new coalition "San Francisco United for Safe Access" held a press conference with several city supervisors and state officials, decrying the Obama administration's aggressive tactics before a crowd of more than 500 supporters. By Friday April 6, San Francisco United had secured a statement from Mayor Ed Lee, expressing his opposition to "recent federal actions targeting duly permitted medicinal cannabis dispensaries...that aim to limit our citizens’ ability to have safe access to the medicine they need."

Dozens of federal agents on April 2 raided Oakland's famed Oaksterdam University and the Lake Merritt area apartment of its owner Richard Lee, California's most prominent cannabis advocate. The armed agents, some wearing face masks, came to the locations with a battering ram, sledgehammer and power saws. Agents from the DEA, IRS and Marshals Service carted away loads of cannabis as well as numerous file boxes, did but not reveal the purpose of the raids, other than to call it part of an "ongoing investigation."

Five bills have been introduced this year in Sacramento concerning cannabis and medical marijuana, winning varying degrees of support from activists and the cannabis industry. Most likely to pass is San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's Assembly Bill 2312, which would regulate medical marijuana at the state level instead of letting each city and county take differing approaches to interpreting the law. AB 2312 would create a Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement within the state Department of Consumer Affairs to approve or deny permits for growing, processing, testing, transporting, distributing and selling medical cannabis.

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770 has decided to take Los Angeles area cannabis dispensary workers under its wing. The union announced March 22 that "health care and grocery workers will welcome the medical cannabis workers and their successful organizing campaign into their union." Said Local 770 president Rick Icaza: "This is the next step in professionalizing and stabilizing this new sector of the health care industry. Unionization and collective bargaining bring better training, less turnover, and more stability to the health care industry. This is a positive step towards successfully integrating compassionate care into our system of health care." (LA Weekly, March 21)

Two men dressed as ninjas who allegedly robbed a medical marijuana deliveryman in West Covina, Los Angeles county, remained at large, police said March 27. The two suspects allegedly wielded batons at a man delivering medicinal cannabis to a local home. The victim told police the robbers—dressed in black with masks over their faces—frightened him into dropping a bag containing an unspecified amount of cannabis and money. The suspects took the bag and fled. "It just sounds so unique and bizarre," Lt. Alan Henley told the Los Angeles Times. "We haven't had any similar incidents." (LAT, March 27) Actually, there has been a spate of similar incidents in Santa Cruz, Humboldt and elsewhere in California recently.

A Shasta County Superior Court judge on March 15 denied the town of Redding's request for a court order that would have closed down medical marijuana dispensaries across the city. Judge Stephen Baker's ruling relied heavily on the 4th District Court of Appeal decision in City of Lake Forest v. Evergreen, issued Feb. 29. The appellate court in the Lake Forest case ruled the city violated state law with its attempt to ban dispensing medical marijuana by declaring the dispensaries nuisances. The Orange County municipality tried to label its dispensaries nuisances solely because of their existence and not because of any illegal activity, the court ruled. (Record Searchlight, March 15)

An odd irony has emerged around the pending Supreme Court decision on Obamacare. As Daily Beast notes, liberal advocates of Obama's "individual mandate" are pointing to the 2005 high court decision Gonzales v. Raich, in which the justices upheld Congress' ability to ban the growth of cannabis even in states that have legalized medical marijuana—rejecting the claims of California activist Angel Raich and two co-plaintiffs, who had sued to block enforcement of federal marijuana laws against them. Advocates note that Justice Antonin Scalia deviated from his "states' rights" principles in siding with the majority. He wrote: