Global Ganja Report

Mayor Chuck Reed issued a memo Jan. 27 calling for the city of San Jose to suspend its controversial medical marijuana ordinance. He cited the California Supreme Court's decision to review four medical marijuana cases dealing with localities' power to regulate, as well as a referendum that has qualified for the ballot to repeal the ordinance. He said the city will remain in talks with dispensaries and will continue to collect taxes on them. "We're just in a position where we can't fix this without some clarification on this unsettled area of the law," Reed said. "It's just impossible for local government to do. So, we’re just going to have to wait." The City Council still has to act on Reed's memo.

Multiple sclerosis patient John Ray Wilson must complete his five-year prison term for growing cannabis after New Jersey's Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal on Jan. 20, in what attorney William Buckman called a "wrongheaded and a vicious travesty."

The country's leading medical marijuana advocacy group, Americans for Safe Access (ASA), filed an appeal brief Jan. 26 in the DC Circuit to compel the federal government to reclassify cannabis for medical use. In July 2011, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) denied a petition filed in 2002 by the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis (CRC). The petition was denied only after the coalition sued the government for unreasonable delay. The ASA brief is an appeal of the rescheduling denial.

The California Supreme Court issued an order Jan. 18 indicating its intent to review two controversial medical marijuana cases that have resulted in the suspension of several local dispensary ordinances across the state. As a result of the order, Pack v. City of Long Beach and City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient's Health and Wellness Ctr., Inc. have both been vacated in anticipation of the high court's ruling. The Pack decision held that dispensary regulations may be preempted by federal law, and the Riverside decision held that localities could legally ban distribution altogether.

On Jan. 11—at exactly 4:20 PM—three medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of San Diego were raided by the cross-jurisdictional Narcotic Task Force (NTF) of San Diego County. The locations attacked included California's Best Meds on University Ave., Golden West in North Park, and San Diego Organic Wellness Association in Pacific Beach. Armed with handguns, rifles, and battering rams, dozens of masked NTF officers rushed into the facilities, breaking down doors and windows, and forcing all patients inside to the floor.

Colorado US Attorney John Walsh on Jan. 12 issued an ultimatum in letters to 23 dispensaries and landlords he claimed are in violation of federal and state law. The dispensaries, which he said are located within 1,000 feet of schools, were given 45 days to cease operations or face civil and criminal penalties. "When the voters of Colorado passed the limited medical marijuana amendment in 2000, they could not have anticipated that their vote would be used to justify large marijuana stores located within blocks of our schools," Walsh said in a statement announcing the letters. 

Officials in Mendocino County revealed Jan. 11 that the US Attorney's Office in San Francisco had threatened to sue the county over its medical marijuana cultivation permit program, prompting its suspension. The warning was delivered at a Jan. 3 meeting between County Counsel Jeanine Nadel and representatives of the US Attorney's Office, Nadel said. County supervisors are scheduled to review the permit ordinance on Jan. 24. The program was also suspended pending the outcome of a Southern California court case that tests the legitimacy of issuing permits for cannabis-related endeavors—the reason given by officials at the time of the suspension on Jan 9.

Mendocino County's unique income-generating medical marijuana cultivation permit process has been suspended, officials announced Jan. 9. The decision was made in light of a Southern California court case that challenges the legality of issuing permits for activities that are illegal under federal law.