Global Ganja Report

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed an ordinance May 3 that will shut 439 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city and impose stricter regulations on the 186 remaining outlets. Under the order, the dispensaries must shut down by June 7, when the city's ordinance to regulate medical marijuana takes effect. Letters, sent to both dispensary operators and property owners, warn that violation of the city laws is a misdemeanor that could lead to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Collectives that stay open after the deadline could also face civil penalties of $2,500 a day.

Venice medical marijuana dispensary Organica Inc was barred by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant April 13 from selling or distributing cannabis, in a ruling that City Attorney Carmen Trutanich hopes will lead to the shutdown of hundreds of clinics across the city. Assistant City Attorney Asha Greenberg said there is no evidence Organica, which had $5.2 million in sales over a 13-month period, was operating as a nonprofit collective.

Mayor Peter Arth of Dunsmuir, Calif., has propsoed planintg a large medical marijuana garden in the small city's historic business district. Arth, himself a medicinal user, this week asked the city council for a permit that would allow him to lease three commercial lots he owns to a cannabis collective to build greenhouses. Arth says the prime location would help "bring medical cannabis out of the darkness of an underground market and into the legal light."

A wave of marijuana law reform is sweeping the US, with initiatives to legalize medicinal use in the forefront, and the traditionally staid East Coast starting to catch up with western states. A medical marijuana bill is gaining ground in New York's state legislature, with lawmakers touting the additional revenues it could bring from licensing fees for growers and dispensers. (WXXI, Rochester, March 23)

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) March 9 denounced efforts by the UN International Narcotic Control Board (INCB) as it met in Vienna to meddle in United States marijuana law reform efforts. In a recent report, the INCB said it was "deeply concerned" that 14 state medical marijuana laws are sending the "wrong message to other countries."

Two Los Angeles police officers spoke out March 17 against a medical cannabis law for Hawaii in testimony before a Hawaii Medical Marijuana Summit held in Wailuku, Maui. "It's so bad in LA," said Sgt. Eric Bixler of the LAPD Narcotics Division. He said law enforcement officials there deal daily with what he called the effects of California's Proposition 215, including people driving while smoking, and teens buying cannabis at medicinal dispensaries to resell on the street.