Global Ganja Report

Advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) issued a letter Nov. 17 urging that Los Angeles' prestigious Cedars-Sinai Medical Center promptly re-list 63-year-old patient Norman B. Smith for a liver transplant. Smith was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009 and became eligible for a transplant at Cedars-Sinai the following year. Smith's oncologist at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Steven Miles, approved of his cannabis use to deal with the effects of chemotherapy and pain from an unrelated back surgery. But in February he was removed from the transplant list after testing positive for cannabis use.

The discovery of a drug tunnel linking San Diego and Tijuana warehouses led to the seizure of some 17 tons of cannabis as well as a large grow operation in the industrial area of Otay Mesa east of San Diego, US and Mexican authorities announced Nov. 16.

A Nov. 9 rally in Sacramento to protest the US Department of Justice crackdown on California's medical marijuana industry brought out some 500 people, who gathered outside the Federal building to hear speakers from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Americans for Safe Access (ASA), and other organizations before marching through the downtown area.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette issued an opinion Nov. 10 finding that law enforcement officers are not required to return confiscated medical marijuana to a patient or caregiver—even though a state law prohibits such seizures. Schuette said the provision in the state's 2008 medical marijuana statute is pre-empted by federal law.

California's Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled Nov. 11 that state law allows cities and counties to ban cannabis dispensaries. Other courts have upheld local government authority to restrict the location of dispensaries or declare a temporary moratorium, but the new ruling, in a case from Riverside, was the first to address a citywide ban. Riverside banned dispensaries in 2009 and sought to shut down the Inland Empire Patients' Health and Wellness Center, in May 2010. A Superior Court judge ruled in the city's favor six months later, but the center has stayed open during its appeal. The appeals court ruling found that state law allows medical patients to use cannabis and form collectives to supply it, but does not exempt them from local government authority to regulate land use. (LAT, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11)

A majority of  Maastricht city councillors on Nov. 7 called upon the Dutch government to delay for at least a year its plans to force cannabis cafes to become members-only clubs. The southern city is also calling on other border towns to join its campaign for a delay to the new rules, which the government says are necessary to combat public nuisance and organized crime. Maastricht says it needs more time to work out a system for enforcing the new rules, and to take a decision on extra policing.

Survey data collected from members of the Berkeley Patients Group, one of California's most prominent medical marijuana collectives, indicates that most patients reduce their use of prescription medications following their initiation of cannabis therapy. The anonymous survey found that 66% of respondents said that they consumed cannabis as a prescription drug substitute. Many said they preferred cannabis because it caused fewer side effects than conventional medications.

Lawsuits were filed Nov. 4 in federal courts in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego in a move to block efforts by US attorneys to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries in California. A similar suit was filed in San Francisco days earlier. "We will ask for injunctive relief in all four districts," said PJ Johnston, a spokesman for the statewide legal effort, coordinated by American for Safe Access (ASA). "The US attorneys in each of the four districts have basically threatened landlords, cannabis cooperatives and media outlets with prosecution and property forfeiture if they don't shut down operations immediately."