Global Ganja Report

Thanks to last year's redistricting, California now has a new Second Congressional District that some call the "Emerald Triangle District"—running from the Golden Gate to the Oregon border, through the cannabis counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity. The primary is in five days, and under California's new open-primary system, the two leading vote-getters will move on to the November general election, regardless of party. In the field of 12, the most outspoken herbal advocate is Garberville's veteran Earth First! tree-hugger Andy Caffrey.

Israeli scientists have developed a non-psychoative cannabis variety, in what is being portrayed as a boost for medical marijuana. According to Israel's Maariv newspaper, the new variety looks, smells and even tastes "the same" as psychoactive varieties. "It has the same scent, shape and taste as the original plant—it's all the same—but the numbing sensation that users are accustomed to has disappeared," said Tzahi Klein, head of development at Tikkun Olam, the firm that developed what an AFP account calls "the species." Klein adds: "Many of our patients who tried the new plant come back to us and say: 'You tricked me'"—because they assumed they had been given a placebo.

In a victory for medical marijuana patients, the California Supreme Court on May 23 denied review of an important dispensary case out of Los Angeles. Rejecting calls from State Attorney General Kamala Harris and law enforcement to review a 2nd District Court of Appeal ruling in People v. Colvin, the high court upheld certain protections for patients and providers. The Attorney General had argued that some undefined percentage of patients were legally required to participate in the operation of the medical marijuana dispensaries in order to obtain medication from them.

State health officials in Arizona are finally accepting applications to operate medical marijuana dispensaries, after months of delays due to rule-making and litigation—including an unsuccessful bid by Gov. Jan Brewer to block the program in the courts. The voter-approved Arizona Medical Marijuana Act calls for the state to establish a Medical Marijuana Program, with up to 126 dispensaries. Several requirements that caused concern for potential applicants have been removed; most notably, a prior bankruptcy was eliminated as a disqualifying factor.

Smoking cannabis can help relieve spasticity (muscle tightness) and pain in people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, a new study suggests. Study leader Dr. Jody Corey-Bloom, director of the US San Diego Multiple Sclerosis Center, looked at 30 multiple sclerosis patients with muscle tightness who weren't helped by conventional medicines, and discovered they found relief from smoking cannabis. "Smoking pot reduces the spasticity by about a third compared to patients on placebo," she said. Those who smoked cannabis also had a 50% decrease in pain scores. The study is published in the May 14 issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. (Huffington Post, Health Day, May 14)

Colorado's Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is running a TV ad May 11 with a Mother's Day theme. The ad, entitled "Dear Mom," is in support of Amendment 64, which will go to voters in November. It features a young woman writing an e-mail to her mother suggesting it's "high time" they talk about her marijuana use (as the Denver Post put it, pun presumably not intended). "The young woman explains that marijuana use is, in her experience, safer and more healthy than the drinking she [the daughter] did in college."

The Rhode Island Senate passed compromise legislation May 9 intended to revive a stalled effort to open medical marijuana dispensaries in the state, with new limits on quantities the facilities may possess. If the measure passes the House, the dispensaries could be open within months. The vote represents progress for dispensaries that were poised to open last year, when Gov. Lincoln Chafee held up their permits citing the threat of federal prosecution.

Federal agents from the DEA and IRS, backed up with Santa Barbara police, served search warrants at a medical marijuana dispensary and a grow house on May 2 and 3. No arrests were made, but search warrants were executed at the Pacific Coast Collective dispensary and, the next morning, at 305 E. Haley St., which was named as a grow house. Agents and detectives also searched the residences of PCC operator Charles Jeff Restivo in Carpinteria, who is already facing local felony charges related to the dispensary; and Steven Kessler in Santa Barbara, who was said to operate the cultivation site.