Global Ganja Report

Montana's Gov. Brian Schweitzer said April 29 that he will let a restrictive new medical marijuana bill take law without his signature. With the legislative session about to end, procedure allows unsigned bills to take effect until the new session in 2013. "So I will hold my nose and allow this to be law until the Legislature gets back to session," Schweitzer said. "I'm not going to sign it."

Veteran Yippie activist and cannabis crusader Ben Masel died April 27 at his home in Madison, Wisc. He had been suffering from terminal lung cancer. Known for founding the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival, the Bronx-born Masel moved to Madison in 1971 and was a fixture in politics there ever since. He frequently ran for public office—including sheriff of Dane County—on a pro-legalization platform, and sometimes on the Republican ticket, just to tweak the local GOP establishment.

Gov. Brian Schweitzer on April 13 vetoed a bill that would have repealed Montana's medical marijuana law, calling it draconian and contrary to the will of the state voters who approved it in by 62% in 2004. "There were many people out there who said there is a medicine out there that is not currently legal," Schweitzer said at a veto ceremony in the governor's reception room at the Capitol.

Evan Mills, an analyst at the US Energy Department's Lawrence Berkeley National Labs in California, recently completed a study entitled "Energy Up in Smoke: The Carbon Footprint of Indoor Cannabis Production"—seeking to quantify the previously undocumented energy demand of the domestic marijuana industry.

Five medical cannabis activists were arrested April 12 in the San Diego City Council chambers protesting the final vote on a local distribution ordinance, which advocates say imposes a citywide de facto ban on collectives. During the hearing, members of the Stop the Ban Campaign—a coalition of over 20 local, state, and national groups spearheaded by Canvass for a Cause and the San Diego chapter of Americans for Safe Access (ASA)—repeatedly chanted "We demand safe access!" The action forced the council to clear the chambers, postponing a critical vote on the ordinance.

Earlier this month, the National Cancer Institute nodded to a growing body of studies indicating that one of the chemical compounds in cannabis slows—or stops—uncontrolled cell growth. In one study, tumors in lab mice shrank once exposed to the compound CBD. The NCI updated its website to include a reference to a "possible direct antitumor effect" from cannabis. But sometime since, the reference was removed, much to cannabis advocates' disgust.

The IRS is believed to have opened audits on at least 12 medical cannabis dispensaries in California under the determination that past deductions are invalid because of a clause in the federal tax code prohibiting any enterprise that traffics in Schedule I or II drugs from making business deductions. The move could bankrupt every dispensary that it targets. The first dispensary to receive a final audit decision from the IRS is the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana (MAMM) in Fairfax.

More than a dozen local and federal law enforcement agencies conducted aggressive criminal raids March 14 on 26 medical marijuana dispensaries and grow sites in 13 Montana cities, according to a press release issued by US Attorney Michael W. Cotter. Federal agencies involved in the raid included the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Internal Revenue Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. No arrests were made, but the US Attorney has alleged probable cause for several federal criminal violations.