Global Ganja Report

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.

Mainstream media had a field day with the publication in the British Medical Journal of a 10-year study by Dutch researchers finding that people who use cannabis in their youth dramatically increase their risk of psychotic symptoms, and that continued use can raise the risk of developing a psychotic disorder in later life. Researchers led by Jim van Os from Maastricht University studied a random sample of 1,923 adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 24 years.

Los Angeles voters approved a new medical marijuana tax March 8 that proponents say could raise millions of dollars for the city—although the measure was opposed by advocates and opponents of medicinal cannabis alike. Measure M, which passed with 59% of the vote, allows Los Angeles to collect $50 in taxes for every thousand dollars collected by medical marijuana clinics. (KABC, LA, March 9)

A vote to be held in Los Angeles Tuesday March 8 threatens to increase the cost of an already expensive treatment for medical marijuana patients in the city. Measure M, one of 10 ballot measures facing LA voters, would increase taxes on medical cannabis by 5%, above the nearly 10% patients already pay in sales tax. Patient advocates have come out in opposition to the measure, asking the city to find other sources of revenue and to remove the tax burden from medicinal users.

Representatives in the Minnesota legislature have proposed a bill to allow farmers to grow medical cannabis for resale to dispensaries in states that have legalized use and sale of marijuana for medical conditions. The House bill, HF0662, was introduced by members of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL).

Mexican federal police on Feb. 28 announced the capture of Victor Torres Garcáa AKA Édgar Mauricia Barrera Corrales AKA "El Papirrin"—alleged leader of a drug network that calls itself "The Resistance." "El Papirrin" was detained in Uruapan, Michoacán, along with two associates, several guns and bags of drugs. La Resistencia is so-named because it was formed as an alliance of various cartels to resist the drive by Los Zetas to dominate Mexico's narco networks. "El Papirrin" was said to be a veteran of the Beltran Leyva cartel.

Seattle's The Stranger alterno-weekly reported Feb. 25 that immediately after the Seattle Times ran an editorial last week supporting a bill to tax and regulate cannabis, the newspaper got a phone call from White House Office of National Drug Control Policy director Gil Kerlikowske. The Drug Czar apparently wanted to fly to Seattle to talk personally the paper's full editorial board.

Dubbed the "Wal-Mart of Weed," the 10,000-square-foot weGrow store, set to open this weekend at 1537 Fulton Ave. in Sacramento, is the first franchise for a company that calls itself a supply and training destination for legal cannabis cultivators. The enterprise started in Oakland last year as a warehouse store called iGrow. Now the Oakland location is being reorganized as a distribution hub for a network of retail hydroponics outlets. The Sacramento store—billed as "the first honest hydro store"—is to be followed by weGrow stores in Arizona, Colorado, New Jersey and Oregon in coming months.