Global Ganja Report

Bolivia and the US agreed to restore diplomatic relations on Nov. 7, three years after President Evo Morales expelled the US ambassador and then, weeks later, the DEA force in the Andean country. This was the first of several times since then that Morales has accused the US of plotting against him. In announcing the move to restore ties, Morales emphasized that the DEA would not be allowed back in his country. Morales said that he himself had been a "victim" of the DEA as a coca grower. He called the DEA's exclusion from Bolivia a question of "dignity and sovereignty."

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country's largest cannabis patients advocacy organization, filed suit in federal court Oct. 27 challenging the Obama administration's attempt to subvert local and state medical marijuana laws in California. ASA argues in its lawsuit that Obama's Department of Justice (DoJ) has "instituted a policy to dismantle the medical marijuana laws of the State of California and to coerce its municipalities to pass bans on medical marijuana dispensaries." The DoJ policy has involved aggressive SWAT-style raids, criminal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients and providers, and threats to local officials for merely implementing state law.

For the third time in as many weeks, DEA agents raided a Southern Oregon medical cannabis grow Oct. 14. Homeowner Clifford Ruhland said the 100-plant operation in Central Point was in compliance with state law. The plants were confiscated, but no arrests made. Ruhland expressed his exasperation: "From my personal perspective it's kind of like... why are you even here? Isn't there something more important, that's affecting people's lives in a real important way, than being here right now?" Medical advocates gathered outside the property when news broke of the raid. (KDRV, Oct. 14)

Northstone Organics, a dispensary in Mendocino County's Redwood Valley, was raided by federal agents Oct. 13, in a move that has sparked outrage across Northern California's Emerald Triangle. "They came in, guns blazing," Northstone Organics owner Matthew Cohen said of the early morning raid, although it does not appear any shots were fired. "They calmed down and were pleasant at the end, but they came in with machine guns."

The US Justice Department on Oct. 11 announced charges aganst two men allegedly working for "factions of the Iranian government" with plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, and to attack Saudi embassies.

Oregon landlord and insurance agent Keith Rogers is protesting that some 30 DEA agents broke down doors on his five houses in Gold Hill Sept. 29, pointed guns at his wife, uprooted hundreds of plants and seized shotguns, cell phones and a tractor. He says he made sure the 20 people he allowed to grow cannabis on his property had checked out under Oregon's medical marijuana law. If state agents had searched his properties, "they would have happily drove off and did nothing," he said. Instead, "it was strictly DEA. They are throwing their weight around and saying the voters of Oregon don't have any rights."

A record 14 tons of cannabis, valued by authorities at over $22.6 million, was seized Sept. 26 at a checkpoint some 60 miles north of the Mexican border in California's Imperial Valley. Agents found the cannabis in 1,100 bundles inside a tractor-trailer, the largest checkpoint cannabis seizure ever for the Border Patrol's El Centro sector. The bust also ranked as one of the biggest US checkpoint seizures outside a border crossing nationwide, according to Border Patrol spokesman Jonathan Creiglow. "This is definitely exceptional," Creiglow said.

The US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on Sept. 21 imposed Kingpin Act sanctions on four Colombian nationals and 12 companies said to be linked to Joaquín Guzmán Loera AKA "El Chapo"—head of Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel. Guzmán faces charges in the US, but remains at large. (WSJ Corruption Currents blog, Sept. 20) The move comes amid increasing charges that US law enforcement—as well as the Mexican government is favoring the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico's bloody narco wars.