Global Ganja Report

Despite being acquitted by a jury late last year of charges stemming from a 2008 arrest on marijuana possession and distribution, medicinal cannabis patient and provider Jovan Jackson is being tried by San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis for a second time in less than a year. However, for the second trial Dumanis is trying to deny Jackson, the former operator of Answerdam Alternative Care Collective (AACC), a medical marijuana defense—based on the claim that "sales" are illegal under state law. Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country's leading medical marijuana patient advocacy group, filed an amicus ("friend of the court") brief in support of Jackson's defense, refuting the District Attorney's allegations.

Authorities have uncovered a marijuana "megafarm" hidden in northern Wisconsin's Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. Oconto County Sheriff Mike Jansen estimated officers seized some 50,000 plants, but state Attorney General JB Van Hollen cautioned that authorities are still counting and the number currently stood closer to 10,000. Authorities are said to believe that a Mexican cartel, wanting to grow the product to closer to US markets, is responsible. Eight Latino men were reportedly arrested. (AP, Aug. 12)

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...

The City Commission in Royal Oak, Mich., unanimously rejected a request Aug. 9 to suspend the city's moratorium on commercial facilities involving medical marijuana, blocking an effort by warehouse owner James Canner to turn his building into what could have become the state's largest cannabis growing facility.

The District of Columbia published more than 300 regulations Aug. 6 implementing a medical marijuana law that passed earlier this year and took effect last month. Unlike the laws in the 14 states that have passed medical marijuana measures, the DC law includes a provision requiring cannabis to be provided at a discount to low-income residents.

Reports are breaking that Dennis Peron, longtime San Francisco cannabis activist and co-author of California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative,  was raided at his home Aug. 4. Citing posts on Facebook, a report on Examiner.com says that Peron, who was recovering from a stroke, suffered a seizure as city police broke down his door.

The US Senate last week approved a bill ostensibly aimed at toughening penalties for those who peddle pot brownies to minors. But the proposed law is actually far more sweeping, and will apply to those who simply bake brownies at home, doubling the penalties for the amount of cannabis involved.