Global Ganja Report

In an interview with SFGate.com's Zennie62 blog June 4, Oakland City Attorney John Russo became the first elected official to openly support cannabis legalization, which will be on the November ballot in California. Why does he support legalization? "Well, first, number one I think marijuana prohibition has been a demonstrated failure at this point, no different than alcohol prohibition in the 1920s." Russo says it's also "cooler" for the young to use marijuana and that's it's time for us to get out of "this collective denial" of the situation.

Humboldt County's Civil Liberties Monitoring Project will host a forum June 19 in Garberville, entitled "Cannabis Health and Safety: The Chemistry, the Economics and the Politics," featuring experts from California and Montana who have taken a "transparent" business approach to cultivating and dispensing marijuana. The Garberville Veterans Association is co-sponsoring this presentation, which will start 7 PM at Veterans Hall.

This weekend, the Sonoma County Fairgrounds in Santa Rosa, California, will host the 32^nd annual Harmony Festival. Considered both a music festival and an exposition for counter-culture lifestyle options, Harmony Festival’s core values include health, art, ecology, healthy living, and spirituality. Starting out as the Health & Harmony Festival in 1978, Harmony is now the longest continuously running premier music and lifestyle festival on the West coast.

A new Los Angeles ordinance went into effect June 7, requiring that more than 400 unauthorized medical marijuana dispensaries to immediately close their doors. A Superior Court judge rejected a last-minute legal bid to delay implementation. The targeted dispensaries all opened after November 2007, when the LA City Council approved a widely-ignored moratorium on new medicinal cannabis outlets. An estimated 130 dispenasires which were open before then will be allowed to stay open—but will have to register with the city and be subject to inspections. (Vertex News, June 8)

In San Jose's first public discussion on crafting an ordinance regulating medical cannabis dispensaries, ideas were shot down and applauded at an emotionally charged City Hall meeting June 7. Parents and teachers expressed fears about the proximity of the dispensaries to schools, while patients and operators dismissed the city's proposals as too restrictive.

With all eyes on November's vote on cannabis legalization in California, the state Senate narrowly voted this week to reclassify possession of less than an ounce an infraction with a penalty of $100—rather than its current status as a misdemeanor with the same fine. Since possession of a less than an ounce is not punishable by jail time, "That's an infraction, by definition," according to Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), the author of SB 1449. "All this bill does is call it what it is—an infraction. It doesn't change the penalties."

California's new Cannabis Law Institute has become the first marijuana law education group to be certified by the State Bar as a "Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Multiple Activity Provider" and is authorized to offer official California MCLE credit for legal education activities. Only a handful of spots are left in their first 75-person seminar, to be held June 5 at the Hilton Sonoma for $420 a head.

The USA's premier cannabis education institution, Oakland's Oaksterdam University, boosted its legitimacy and ended a long-simmering internal issue May 27 with an announcement that the school is unionizing about 100 jobs. The Bay Area's UFCW Local 5 said that employees at Oaksterdam and five related enterprises have voted to join them, and separate elections are also being verified at cannabis hydroponics retailer iGrow and cultivation company AgraMed.