Global Ganja Report

California's Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled Nov. 11 that state law allows cities and counties to ban cannabis dispensaries. Other courts have upheld local government authority to restrict the location of dispensaries or declare a temporary moratorium, but the new ruling, in a case from Riverside, was the first to address a citywide ban. Riverside banned dispensaries in 2009 and sought to shut down the Inland Empire Patients' Health and Wellness Center, in May 2010. A Superior Court judge ruled in the city's favor six months later, but the center has stayed open during its appeal. The appeals court ruling found that state law allows medical patients to use cannabis and form collectives to supply it, but does not exempt them from local government authority to regulate land use. (LAT, SF Chronicle, Nov. 11)

A scandal involving US law enforcement programs to let guns "walk" into Mexico has now widened to include the 2001-2008 administration of former president George W. Bush, a Republican, as well as the administration of current Democratic president Barack Obama. The latest revelations concern a program codenamed Operation Wide Receiver, in which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) reportedly allowed some 350 or 400 guns to enter Mexico illegally during 2006 and 2007.

Survey data collected from members of the Berkeley Patients Group, one of California's most prominent medical marijuana collectives, indicates that most patients reduce their use of prescription medications following their initiation of cannabis therapy. The anonymous survey found that 66% of respondents said that they consumed cannabis as a prescription drug substitute. Many said they preferred cannabis because it caused fewer side effects than conventional medications.

Lawsuits were filed Nov. 4 in federal courts in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego in a move to block efforts by US attorneys to crack down on medical marijuana dispensaries in California. A similar suit was filed in San Francisco days earlier. "We will ask for injunctive relief in all four districts," said PJ Johnston, a spokesman for the statewide legal effort, coordinated by American for Safe Access (ASA). "The US attorneys in each of the four districts have basically threatened landlords, cannabis cooperatives and media outlets with prosecution and property forfeiture if they don't shut down operations immediately."

Fort Collins became the largest city in Colorado to ban medical marijuana Nov. 1, as Question 300, a measure to prevent dispensaries and grow facilities from operating within city limits, passed by a margin of 53%. The ban will force 21 licensed medical marijuana businesses in Fort Collins to close within 90 days. But opponents of the ban said they are not giving up the fight, and may try to bring the issue back to voters in 2012. (Fox31, Denver, Loveland Connection, Nov. 2)

This week, more than 12,000 people—85% of them Black—now serving time for crack cocaine offenses will have their sentences reviewed by a federal judge under terms of the Fair Sentencing Act, passed in August of last year. The reform bill reduced the 100-to-1 disparity between minimum sentences for crack and powder cocaine to 18-to-1. On Nov. 1, those already serving time became eligible for a hearing to consider reducing their sentences under the new changes.

Nine Congress members on Oct. 31 issued an open letter to President Obama urging him to put a halt to new aggressive Justice Department tactics aimed at dismantling California's medical marijuana industry. "It's unconscionable...to endanger the lives of patients," the reps state in the strongly worded letter, which calls for rescheduling cannabis. It especially urges support for HR 1983, the States' Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act, which was introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) earlier this year.

State, local and federal law enforcement in Arizona announced Oct. 31 that they have dismantled a smuggling ring allegedly operated by the Sinaloa Cartel, which is believed to have trafficked some $2 billion of drugs from Mexico through the state over the past five years. "We in Arizona continue to stand and fight the Mexican drug cartels, who think they own the place," Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu said in a statement about the investigation, dubbed Operation Pipeline Express. A total of 76 individuals are being held in connection to the ring, from organizational bosses to stash-house guards to those who transported the drugs in backpacks and in vehicles. Weapons and large bundles of compacted cannabis were seized in the raids.