Global Ganja Report

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."

Northern California's Humboldt Plant Fertilizers (HPF) announced Sept. 22 that it will become "the only natural liquid plant nutrient company banning any use of slaughterhouse by-products such as the bone meal, blood meal, and feather meal almost universally found in all other natural fertilizer products." Every product manufactured by HPF will now bear the "Holy Cow" symbol—a smiling bovine head with a halo and the words "We never use slaughterhouse by-products."

An Aug. 31 report on PBS NewsHour provides mixed indications on recent hype about the supposed presence of Mexican drug cartels in the cannabis trade of Northern California's Emerald Triangle—which has now been officially designated a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area by the federal government. In the Mendocino National Forest, which has seen unprecedented raids this year, 10 Mexican nationals are among the approximately 100 arrested. Last year, Mendocino County saw a record-breaking number of armed confrontations during marijuana raids—"many with Mexican nationals with suspected links to drug gangs across the border." Two Mexican nationals were killed in last year's raids—one, named Mariano Fernández, reportedly after he aimed an "AK-47-type rifle" at a police SWAT team.

The oddly named mapping website FloatingSheep.com has produced a map showing the differences in the retail price of cannabis in the United States, coast to coast. The map—apparently featured in the September issue of Wired magazine under the cheeky title "Infoporn: O Say, Can You THC?"—is based on information gleaned from consumer reports on the Price of Weed website.

East Bay physician Dr. Frank Lucido, Mendocino activist Pebbles Trippet and attorney William Panzer have announced a new California initiative to legalize the state's biggest cash crop. The Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act of 2012 would allow adults to legally possess up to three pounds and grow a ten-by-ten-foot garden, with the California Department of Public Health to oversee the commercial side. The text of the initiative has been submitted to the state Attorney General's office for review.

On Aug. 9, the Board of Supervisors in California's Kern County passed an ordinance that bans medical marijuana cooperatives. But advocates have already launched a referendum drive to stop the ordinance. "We want to see an ordinance that works for everybody," said Craig Beresh, president of the California Cannabis Coalition. "That regulates it, gets taxed and is beneficial for Kern County as well as the collectives." Professional signature collectors are headed to Kern County to drum up more than 17,000 names needed before the ordinance goes into effect Sept. 9. (KGT, Bakersfield, Aug. 11)

A massive, six-county cannabis eradication operation targeting Northern California's Mendocino National Forest is currently underway, with a multi-agency task force of hundreds of state, federal and county officers claiming seizures of some 292,000 plants and 77 arrests. "At this point, the operation is going as planned. We're making very good progress," said Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman. Raids are taking place simultaneously in Mendocino, Lake, Colusa, Glenn, Tehama, and Trinity counties, which all contain portions of the Mendocino National Forest.

Law enforcement agents in six Northern California counties are preparing for the largest series of cannabis raids yet conducted in the Emerald Triangle.  "Operation Full Court Press" will unleash hundreds of local, state and federal agents, first targeting the Mendocino National Forest, combing the mountains for illegal growers who authorities say have set up "huge plantations" deep in the woods, some reportedly numbering tens of thousands of plants. Law enforcement contends that many of the illegal growers are Mexican nationals who are linked to large drug-trafficking cartels. As evidence of a strong Mexico connection, prosecutors point to hundreds of Mexican nationals arrested in recent years at illegal outdoor grows in the Golden State. (California Watch, July 21)