Global Ganja Report

The US Navy transport ship USS New Orleans recovered an estimated 1,800 pounds of cannabis from a small boat off the coast of San Diego Aug. 20. Coast Guard officials received a call about a 20-foot fishing boat apparently from Mexico, and requested the New Orleans respond as they were operating in the vicinity. As the New Orleans approached, the boat's crew dumped several bundles overboard. Officials said some 1,800 pounds of cannabis was recovered from the dumped bundles. The recovered cannabis and several crew members were turned over to the Mexican navy.

Orange County Superior Court Judge David Chaffee ruled Aug. 19 that the city of Anaheim may legally prohibit medical cannabis dispensaries. This is the second hearing of Anaheim vs Qualified Patients' Association, which was remanded to the lower court by the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana last year. The court ruled that Anaheim's  dispensary ban is a valid exercise of local police powers and is not pre-empted by Prop 215 or SB 420. The decision concedes that SB 420 protects patients and caregivers engaged in collective cultivation, but that protection is limited to cultivation, not distribution. The decision cites a litany of case law giving local government broad powers to regulate for nuisance abatement.

On Aug. 9, the Board of Supervisors in California's Kern County passed an ordinance that bans medical marijuana cooperatives. But advocates have already launched a referendum drive to stop the ordinance. "We want to see an ordinance that works for everybody," said Craig Beresh, president of the California Cannabis Coalition. "That regulates it, gets taxed and is beneficial for Kern County as well as the collectives." Professional signature collectors are headed to Kern County to drum up more than 17,000 names needed before the ordinance goes into effect Sept. 9. (KGT, Bakersfield, Aug. 11)

Superior Court Judge Paul Vortmann in California's Tulare County ruled Aug. 11 that a cannabis collective cannot operate on land zoned for agriculture, dismissing a property owner's arguments. "In this state, marijuana has never been classified as a crop or horticultural product," Vortmann wrote. Cannabis is a controlled substance, the ruling stated, adding that "the court finds as a matter of law that growing marijuana...is not an agricultural use of property."

California's Legislative Analyst's Office released a status report on Aug. 5 concluding that California is unlikely to meet the US Supreme Court's two-year deadline to reduce the state's prison population by 34,000 inmates. California's prisoner realignment plan, which entails shifting thousands of low-level offenders to county jails, could reduce the prison population by 32,000 inmates—still a few thousand inmates short of decreasing the 180% prison capacity to the mandated 137.5% capacity, by June 27, 2013.

Arrested last August in San Francisco for possessing marijuana, meth and child porn, Dennis Peron had his day in court Aug. 3, and scored a win when the DA dropped the case because the "burden of proof" was not "beyond a reasonable doubt." Peron immediately declared, "They dragged my name through the mud for a year. I'm going to sue [the San Francisco Police Department] for a million dollars. They soiled my name for no reason."

Park rangers announced the seizure in late July of more than 3,500 cannabis plants over a nine-acre swath in the heart of Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The National Park Service said the plots were scattered across an area near Zuma and Trancas canyons, south of Mulholland Highway. Earlier in the month, Ventura County Sheriff's officials announced the largest single seizure of cannabis plants in their jurisdiction, from an outdoor grow operation in the Pine Mountain area of Los Padres National Forest. The raid  in the rugged mountains north of Ojai netted 68,500 plants valued at $205.46 million, according to a sheriff's statement. No suspects were arrested. The season total for seized cannabis in Ventura County is over 100,000 plants. (Thousand Oaks Acorn, July 28; LAT, July 18; KEYT, Santa Barbara, July 15; LAT, July 14)

On July 25, following extensive testimony from medical cannabis advocates, the San Diego City Council voted to repeal an ordinance passed in April that would have restricted dispensaries to a few remote industrial areas of the city. Only a couple of collectives would have been allowed to open after they came into compliance with one of the most strict ordinances in the state of California. The City Council must now consider the recommendations of its own Medical Marijuana Task Force, which came up with a less restrictive set of rules—although still keeping dispensaries 1,000 feet away from schools, playgrounds, libraries, childcare facilities.