Global Ganja Report

California Beer & Beverage Distributors, an industry lobbying group, is sinking money into the campaign to oppose Proposition 19, the November ballot initiative that would legalize cannabis in the state. "[I]t donated $10,000 to Public Safety First, a committee organized to oppose the proposition, on Sept. 7, 2010, though the contribution was only recently made public," reports The Huffington Post "The alcohol industry has long seen illicit drugs as a threat to sales, as consumers may substitute pot for booze. A night spent on the couch smoking marijuana and watching television is a night not spent at the bar."

The Obama administration opposes legalizing marijuana and views medical marijuana dubiously as well, said Kevin Sabet, special adviser for policy at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Marijuana cannot be the one exception in history of the world that doesn’t go through a scientific process to be approved as medicine," Sabet told the Montana Supreme Court Administrator's annual drug court conference in Helena. “It doesn’t make any sense. “How can we imagine that a dangerous, illegal drug like marijuana should be voted on by the people? That’s not how we do medicine in this country.”

Nearly 4,000 attended the 11th annual Cannabis Revival in Joplin, Mo., on Sept. 25. Among the speakers advocating for legalization of marijuana was former Republican New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson (1995-2002). Kelly Maddy, director of the Joplin chapter of the NORML and organizer of the Cannabis Revival, said the weekend event was held as a way to encourage public involvement in marijuana law reform. Johnson, who has toured the country speaking on the issue, says the drug should be regulated and taxed like alcohol. (AP, The Fuse, Joplin, Sept. 26)

In a joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly Committees on Public Safety in Sacramento Sept. 21, proponents and opponents weighed in on California's Proposition 19. In the latter category was, surprisingly, the California Cannabis Association, an alliance of medical users which has launched a website called Keep Cannabis Medical. "Proposition 19 is a direct assault on medical marijuana patients," Cap Radio quoted George Mull, the group's president. "Prop 19 is deeply flawed, and creates a chaotic, local, 'you figure it out' approach to marijuana regulation. That won't work."

On Aug. 25, the Los Angeles Times ran an opinion piece, "Why California should just say no to Prop. 19." jointly written by Gil Kerlikowske, John Walters, Barry McCaffrey, Lee Brown, Bob Martinez and William Bennett, directors of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under presidents Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush. On Narco News, Al Giordano responds with "Six American Zeroes: Reason Enough to Support California Prop 19." Here are some excerpts:

On Aug. 12, the California Chamber of Commerce held a press conference bashing Prop 19, claiming employers would have to permit employees to smoke marijuana at work. But First Amendment lawyer and Prop 19 author James Wheaton says the Chamber is lying. Employees don't have to let workers come to work drunk, and they wouldn't have to let them come to work high. Furthermore, employers can already fire employees at will, as well as if they fail a drug test, and that will not change if Prop 19 passes.

Mexico's former president Vicente Fox wrote on his blog Aug. 8 that "we should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs"—the most far-reaching stand for legalization yet in Mexico, where more than 28,000 people have died during the current administration's war against drug cartels. The proposal is sparking the predictable backlash from hardliners, as AP reports...

California attorney general and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown has come out strongly against Proposition 19, the voter initiative that would effectively legalize in the state if passed this November. Speaking before the California District Attorneys Association Conference in Monterey, Brown said legalizing would open the flood gates for the ruthless and deadly Mexican drug cartels: "Every year we get more and more marijuana and every year we find more guys with AK-47's coming out of Mexico going into forests and growing more and more dangerous and losing control." (KSBW, June 29)