Global Ganja Report

The "Westies"—Manhattan's "Irish Mafia," notorious for running loan-sharking and extortion rackets in the West Side neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen 20 years ago—have suddenly resurfaced with a highly sophisticated scheme using a fleet of private jets to smuggle high-grade cannabis from Northern California to cities across the country, authorities told the New York Post.

An estimated $500,000 worth of cannabis was found floating off the coast of Marina del Rey on Feb. 2. A boater alerted authorities to 30 bales, or 900 pounds, found some six miles west of the Marina del Rey harbor entrance, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said.

With medical marijuana dispensaries banned by local ordinance in Loveland, Fort Collins and Longmont, Herbs Medicinals in the small town of Berthoud, Larimer county, is one of the few remaining in northern Colorado. There are two dispensaries in unincorporated parts of Larimer county and two in Garden City, just south of Greeley in neighboring Weld county. Kevin and Michele Ballinger run Herbs Medicinals so it fits in, even putting up a Nativity scene during the holidays. "We heard from a lot of churches who were very happy with our display," Michele Ballinger, a Berthoud native, told the Denver Post. "We want to be respectful and just part of the town. Because the town had been very good to us."

Mexican federal police on Feb. 14 announced the arrest in Culiacán, Sinaloa, of Jaime Herrera Herrera AKA "El Viejito" (Little Old Man), said to be top meth manufacturer and distributor for the Sinaloa Cartel. (NYT, Feb. 14) The bust came ten days after the arrest in León, Guanajuato, of José Antonio Torres Marrufo AKA "El Marrufo"—said to be leader of the Gente Nueva gang, armed wing of the Sinaloa Cartel. Prosecutors suspect Marrufo of ordering the 2009 attack on a drug treatment clinic in Ciudad Juárez in which 18 people were killed. The cartel's maximum boss, Joaquín Guzmán AKA "El Chapo" (Shorty), still remains at large. (BBC News, Crónica de Hoy, RTT, Feb. 14; El Diario, Ciudad Juárez, Feb. 6; BBC News, Feb. 4)

Cannabis could soon be decriminalized in Belize following comments by Minister of Police and Public Safety Doug Singh that his ministry is preparing a paper exploring the idea to be presented to the Cabinet. Singh said that he is looking at removing criminal penalties for quantities under somewhere between five to seven grams. He emphasized that under the proposal, those caught with such personal quantities would still face a ticket and fine, and that legalization is not under consideration.

Two men wearing clown masks and wielding handguns burst into the Creme de Canna medical marijuana dispensary in Santa Cruz Feb. 2, forcing employees to turn over the contents of the safe before fleeing. The hit mirrors one on Dec. 15, when two men wearing carnival masks held up the city's Herbal Cruz dispensary. (San Jose Mercury News, Feb. 2) The heists come amid growing concerns about gunplay in the West Coast cannabis industry, exacerbated by the frequent refusal of local authorities to issue concealed handgun permits to medical marijuana users. Such policies by mostly rural counties on the West Coast and elsewhere were dealt a blow by the US Supreme Court's recent refusal to hear an appeal of a lower court decision upholding the rights of permit-holders who use cannabis legally under state law.

The enactment of state medical marijuana laws is associated with reduced instances of suicide, according to a discussion paper published recently by the Institute for the Study of Labor in Bonn, Germany. Researchers at Montana State University, the University of Colorado, and San Diego State University assessed rates of suicide in the years before and after the passage of medical marijuana laws. Authors of the discussion paper, entitled "High on Life: Medical Marijuana Laws and Suicide," found:

Jury selection is set to begin in the trial of San Diego area medical marijuana patient Benjamin Gasper—a case that has local advocates outraged over what they call a vindictive crusade against legal cannabis users by San Diego District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. The charges were dismissed last year on procedural grounds, but re-filed by Dumanis. Because Gasper never actually stood trial, this does not constitute double jeopardy.