Global Ganja Report

Five bills have been introduced this year in Sacramento concerning cannabis and medical marijuana, winning varying degrees of support from activists and the cannabis industry. Most likely to pass is San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's Assembly Bill 2312, which would regulate medical marijuana at the state level instead of letting each city and county take differing approaches to interpreting the law. AB 2312 would create a Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement within the state Department of Consumer Affairs to approve or deny permits for growing, processing, testing, transporting, distributing and selling medical cannabis.

Jewish settlers from the Tapuch Junction area of the West Bank are suspected of purchasing hashish and cannabis from their Palestinian neighbors in the nearby village of Hawara. Israeli police investigating drug-smuggling across the "Green Line" that divides the West Bank from Israel detained several Palestinian youth at the village last week—and found that a confiscated client list included settlers from neighboring militant Jewish communities, including Yitzhar, Itamar and Har Bracha. Four Jewish clients were subsequently detained.

Long the main gateway to Europe for Moroccan hashish, Spain has over the past year emerged as one of the continent's main cannabis cultivation hubs, rivaling the Netherlands. Principal cultivation zones are Andalusia, Murcia, Catalonia, Aragon and especially Valencia—which the Guardia Civil describes as "a jungle of cannabis."

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates reported their biggest drug bust in 20 years, with Sharjah Province Anti-Narcotics Police seizing 2.5 tons of hashish. The sting operation dubbed "Eastern Wind" was carried out in cooperation with the coast guard. Twelve Iranians and two Pakistani were reported arrested. (Gulf News, Jan. 28)

Morocco's royal navy intercepted two dinghies loaded with 2.725 tons of cannabis resin (locally known as chira) off the coast of Nador on Aug. 13. The four occupants of the boat, equipped with two 200-horsepower engines, managed to escape.

The Control of Narcotics Substance Court in the Pakistani port of Karachi sentenced five men to life imprisonment on Aug. 6. The Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) arrested the five in a raid in Mauripur last July, seizing 5,195 kilograms of hashish. Special Judge Imdad Hussain Khoso sentenced all five to life terms and fines of 100,000 rupees.

Turkey's Anatolian Agency reports that 11,8 tons of hashish have been seized by special security services in the eastern province of Diyarbakir within seven months. A total of 137 police operations against hashish traffickers have been carried out, with 542 arrested and 90 remaining in custody. All confiscated drugs were reportedly destroyed. (Focus, Aug. 2)

With Israeli tokers already irritable over a cannabis drought (the result of a literal drought, which has impacted farmers throughout the Jewish state and Occupied Palestinian Territories), organizers of a planned legalization rally in Tel Aviv were dealt another blow when city authorities denied them a permit.