Global Ganja Report

Oakland's Harborside Health Center, the self-proclaimed world's largest cannabis dispensary—handling an annual $22 million in transactions—is being audited by the US Internal Revenue Service. Since late last year, the IRS has been auditing 2008 and 2009 federal tax returns for the Oakland location, one of two outlets Harborside operates for 70,000 medical cannabis users. The other facility is in San Jose.

Oakland City Attorney John Russo has withdrawn his legal counsel from plans to tax and license large-scale cannabis farms, and told the City Council to hire their own attorney.

The city's original cannabis cultivation ordinance set no limits on the size of the cultivation facilities, which would operate as stand-alone businesses separate from dispensaries. The council had hoped to start licensing the farms as early as last month, but suspended action on the licenses in December so the ordinance could be revised to more closely comply with state law.

State Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation Jan. 27 that would prevent California employers from discriminating against medical marijuana patients. Senate Bill 129 would not change current law, which prohibits employees from using medical marijuana at the workplace. According to Leno, his bill "simply establishes a medical cannabis patient's right to work." SB 129 would reverse a 2008 California Supreme Court ruling that granted employers the right to fire or refuse to hire workers with a physician's recommendation for medical marijuana. Advocates have estimated that more than 400,000 medical marijuana patients live in California.

The California Supreme Court on Jan. 3 allowed police to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody. Under US Supreme Court precedents, "this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body...but also to open and examine what they find," the state court found in a 5-2 ruling.

Oakland's City Council is considering a new medical cannabis cultivation plan that would scale back the size of the growing operations and tie them more directly to dispensaries, according to a draft obtained by local media. Written up by council member Desley Brooks, the changes are meant to address legal concerns over the original plan, which would have allowed for four large-scale farms to supply several dispensaries.

Patients and medical cannabis advocates protested outside of the San Luis Obispo County Superior Court earlier this month to draw attention to the heavy-handed raids and arrests that took place the week of Dec. 27. During a three-day period, as many as 50 Narcotics Task Force officers from local and state enforcement agencies raided seven collectively-run medical cannabis delivery services, arresting 15 people on felony charges and held them on bails of up to $100,000. Several of those arrested were charged with child endangerment, after Child Protective Services removed at least six children from the homes of three different families.

Federal, state and local officials in a Northern California counter-terrorism drill  last week played out a scenario in which local cannabis growers set off bombs and took over the Shasta Dam, the nation’s second largest, to free an imprisoned comrade. A local news report said that in the mock-terror scenario, a cannabis growers' "red cell" set off bus and car bombs as distractions, took over the dam with three hostages, and then "threatened to flood the Sacramento River by rolling open the drum gates atop the dam."

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.