Global Ganja Report

Medical marijuana advocates in San Diego have unveiled a proposed ballot measure to end the current municipal crackdown on dispensaries. The proposed initiative would set a 2.5% sales tax for the storefront dispensaries and prohibit them within 600 feet of schools and playgrounds, as well as laying out security and inspection requirements. "Our intent is to bring back safe access to medical cannabis for qualified patients," said Jessica McElfresh of the Patient Care Association of California, which helped draft the proposal. "Voters have almost always overwhelmingly supported medical marijuana responsible regulation." Proponents need to collect about 62,000 voter signatures to qualify the measure for the 2012 November ballot.

A coalition of cannabis advocates led by Americans for Safe Access and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) has proposed a 2012  California ballot initiative that would create a Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement to oversee a statewide system for licensing, regulating and taxing the industry.

The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax officially closes this weekend in the face of federal threats to the dispensary's landlord. Additionally, the Marin Independent Journal reports Dec. 16 that one and possibly two more of Marin County's six dispensaries will be following suit. The Marin Wellness Center in Kentfield, also will cease operations by Jan. 1. Scot Candell, a San Rafael lawyer who represents the center, said its landlord had likewise received a threatening letter from federal prosecutors.

Cannabis use among teens is rising, despite declines in smoking and alcohol use, according to new findings of the Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The study reports that one in every 15 high school seniors said they used marijuana almost every day, the highest rate since 1981. And the Drug Czar is blaming the medical marijuana movement.

Late on the night of Dec. 13, the Long Beach City Council deadlocked on a motion to ban medical marijuana collectives in the city—a measure backed by both the city attorney and police department. The vote—split 4-to-4—was quickly followed by a second vote to delay another such vote until January. The vote followed some three hours of public comments—from medical marijuana patients and activists, lawyers and lobbyists, to local business owners and residents who claimed dispensaries were selling pot to "kids on bikes." One of the patients who spoke, Mark Lee—who has no legs and is wheelchair bound—urged the council not to ban the dispensaries because it would force him to obtain his medicine on the street.

A petition online at Roots Action unites the demands of the Occupy Wall Street movement with those of the medical marijuana movement. We are glad that some people are getting the big picture!

Arrests for low-level pot possession dropped in the weeks after New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly warned officers not to make arrests for small quantities found in pockets or bags, according to new data released Dec. 7. Kelly issued the internal order Sept. 19 after claims from civil rights groups that officers were wrongly arresting people in a state where personal possession is punishable with a fine. There are more arrests on cannabis charges—about 50,000 a year—than any other crime in New York City. Pot cases account for about one of every seven that turn up in criminal courts.

The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax—California's oldest cannabis dispensary—is preparing to close its doors  following a Dec. 2 ruling by Marin County Superior Court Judge Roy Chernus, who refused to stop the club's pending eviction. Chernus found that the dispensary's lease requires compliance with federal law, which forbids selling cannabis. MAMM founder Lynnette Shaw told Global Ganja Report by e-mail Dec. 5: "We are moving ourselves shortly to an unspecified location for storage. Maybe even today. Sigh..."