Global Ganja Report

Workers at seven Fort Collins cannabis dispensaries officially affiliated Oct. 17 with Colorado's largest labor union in an effort to further legitimize and protect the medical marijuana industry. Union organizers said an "overwhelmingly" large majority of the Fort Collins workers voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), making Colorado the second state in the US, after California, where some cannabis industry workers have formally unionized.

Conservative community groups have launched a ballot initiative to ban cannabis dispensaries in Fort Collins—the only Northern Colorado city that allows dispensaries to operate, under state and local restrictions. Supporters of Question 300, which will be on the ballot Nov. 1, say the dispensaries have made cannabis too available and are increasing crime. A coalition of dispensary owners and patients says dispensaries are the only safe, regulated way for people with legitimate needs to obtain medical cannabis. They argue that closing dispensaries would push more growing operations into residential areas, take tax revenue away from the city, and put about 200 locals out of work. (Loveland Reporter-Herald, Oct. 8)

With signatures due at county courthouses, it appears highly likely a proposed Montana referendum to overturn the restrictive new state medical marijuana law will qualify for the November 2012 election. To make the ballot, a referendum needs the signatures of 5% of the voters in 34 of the 100 state House districts, or at least 24,337 signatures. Secretary of State Linda McCulloch's office has reported tabulating 19,973 qualified signatures so far for Initiative Referendum 124, the proposed medical marijuana measure. It has qualified in 31 House districts. The proposed initiative seeks to repeal the new law that bans for-profit marijuana operations and makes it more difficult to qualify to be a registered user. (AP, Sept. 29; Billings Gazette, Sept. 28)

On Sept. 14, the ACLU of Colorado endorsed the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, which would legalize the use of cannabis for those 21 years of age and older in the state. In a statement on the endorsement, the ACLU chapter said:

Multiple court cases in Nevada are prompting a second look at the state's medical marijuana law. In a sometimes heated courtroom session, Clark County District Judge Douglas Smith heard arguments Sept. 16 in the case of six defendants arrested last November in a raid of Jolly Green Meds co-op on Las Vegas' famed Sahara Ave. On Sept. 12, the county's Judge Donald Mosley threw out a grand jury indictment in a case concerning the Sin City Co-Op, also of Las Vegas, and also shut down in a raid. Mosley ruled that the grand jury wasn't shown enough evidence to indicate that an undercover officer illegally obtained cannabis at the co-op. (Las Vegas Sun, Sept. 16)

Federal prosecutors pursuing drug charges against Montana medical marijuana operators want to keep jurors from hearing any evidence at trial about the state law approving such operations, or whether the defendants were complying with it. US Justice Department attorneys have made motions in at least two cases stemming from federal raids on dozens of medicinal cannabis operations this spring, asking judges to bar any testimony or evidence about medical marijuana.

Sweet Leaf Pioneer owner Dave Manzanares in Eagle, Colo., must shut down his medical marijuana dispensary Oct. 31, even if he proceeds with plans to collect signatures for a special election to keep it open in the long term. On Aug. 23, Manzanares told members of the town board that he is circulating petitions to put the question to the voters, and asked for an extension beyond the Oct. 31 deadline established by a municipal ordinance. "Our family's future is in the balance here," Manzanares said.

In Colorado, signature gatherers have already hit the streets to get the "Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act" on the 2012 ballot. Despite the failure of California's Proposition 19 last year, activists think that Colorado may have a better shot of becoming the first state to legalize cannabis. "I think why it would be seen as a better investment here in Colorado is based on how things are going with medical marijuana regulations," said Mason Tvert, a  Colorado  organizer. "Also the size of the state is just smaller. Everything about California is far more expensive." (The Bay Citizen, San Francisco, Aug. 1)