Global Ganja Report

A May 5 report in the Sacramento Bee portrays an Emerald Triangle hard-hit by the federal crackdown on medical marijuana in California. Cultivators who sought legitimacy through the medical market are fleeing to the black market, leading to a glut—which is now ironically hurting the remnant medicinal market. With cheap weed getting dumped in the college town of Arcata, some local dispensaries say business is down 75%. The price of top-line bud has dropped from around $5,000 to under $1,000. "Last I heard, a pound of marijuana is $800 for outdoor grown," gloated Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman. "That's plummeting. You might do better with tomatoes."

A Dutch court on April 27 upheld a law that will prevent foreigners from buying cannabis in coffee shops, spelling an end to decades of "pot tourism" in the Netherlands. The decision means coffee shops in three southern provinces must stop selling cannabis to foreigners on May 1, when the law takes effect. A so-called "weed pass" is allowed for Dutch citizens and permanent residents. Coffee shops in the southern provinces of Zeeland, North Brabant and Limburg bordering Belgium (see map) will become members-only clubs, allowed to issue up to 2,000 membership cards—known as "weed passes"—to residents over the age of 18.The plan will go nationwide in January 2013.

A number of California winemakers are secretly producing wines laced with cannabis, Cabernet Sauvignon being the variety of choice for the blend, reports trade journal The Drinks Business April 16. "Pot wine is increasingly fashionable in wine country—much of the marijuana used for the wine comes from California's weed capital Humboldt County," Crane Carter, president of the Napa Valley Marijuana Growers said. "Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stag’s Leap district is thought to pair particularly well with pot." According to Carter, cannabis wine delivers a quicker high than pot brownies, and the combination of alcohol and THC produces "an interesting little buzz."

United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 770 has decided to take Los Angeles area cannabis dispensary workers under its wing. The union announced March 22 that "health care and grocery workers will welcome the medical cannabis workers and their successful organizing campaign into their union." Said Local 770 president Rick Icaza: "This is the next step in professionalizing and stabilizing this new sector of the health care industry. Unionization and collective bargaining bring better training, less turnover, and more stability to the health care industry. This is a positive step towards successfully integrating compassionate care into our system of health care." (LA Weekly, March 21)

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.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris urged state lawmakers in a Dec. 21 letter to clarify the Golden State's 1996 medical marijuana law, saying numerous holes in the statute have left law enforcement and legitimate patients in a state of uncertainty. In the letter to state legislature leaders, Harris said lawmakers need to make clear if the hundreds of storefront dispensaries and delivery services that sell cannabis—ostensibly for medical use—are legal, or if the only legal means of procuring the herb are patient collectives in which all members jointly grow their own supply.

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.

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!