Global Ganja Report

A new study postulates a link between states with legalized medical marijuana and a reduction in traffic-related fatalities. The study was conducted by D. Mark Anderson, a Montana State University economics professor, and Daniel Rees, of the University of Colorado Denver. In looking at state-level data from sources such as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, Anderson and Rees found that states with medical marijuana laws saw an average 9% decrease in traffic deaths. "We were pretty surprised that they went down," Rees told the Denver Post.

We recently reported claims that the DEA has granted unnamed private pharmaceutical companies license to grow cannabis for experimental purposes. Now, the Sacramento News & Review on Dec. 19 cites a report from the Union of Medical Marijuana Patients to the effect that the United States government holds a patent on the use of cannabinoids as "antioxidants and neuroprotectants"—specifically, the Department of Health & Human Services holds Patent #6630507, as documented at the US Patent & Trademark Office.

Numerous "friends" have posted to my Facebook page a Dec. 19 story from a website with the tellingly stupid name Just Paste It entitled "Sweden legalizes and regulates cannabis." There's even a quote from an apparently non-existent Swedish official, "Jonas Grönhög," who says "We don't want to make the same mistakes which the USA has done, we do not want to be prohibitionists because the war on drugs has been lost long ago." Alas, Sweden has done no such thing. Tip of the hat to the good folks at the Toke of the Town blog for calling out the hoax.

Even as the White House has censured Venezuelan officials for "narco-terrorist" ties, AP reported Dec. 15 that Venezuela handed a top Colombian drug trafficking suspect to US authorities. The US had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Maximiliano Bonilla Orozco AKA "Valenciano." InsightCrime informs us that "Valenciano" led the "Oficina de Envigado" criminal organization, seen as a successor to the Medellín Cartel. He was arrested last month in Maracay, west of Caracas.

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.

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!

The US Justice Department on Oct. 11 announced charges aganst two men allegedly working for "factions of the Iranian government" with plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, and to attack Saudi embassies.

Cannabis is increasingly the drug of choice among young adults in the US, while methamphetamine  use  is dropping, according to a national survey released Sept. 8 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Overall, 8.9% of the US population or 22.6 million people aged 12 and older used illicit drugs in 2010, up from 8.7% in 2009 and 8% in 2008, the study finds according to Reuters. Cannabis use appears to be driving the increase, with some 17.4 million—or 6.9% of the population—saying they used marijuana in 2010, up from 14.4 million or 5.8% of the population in 2007.