Global Ganja Report

Hundreds of riot police backed up by 200 navy commandos invaded the Rio de Janeiro favelas of Rocinha, Vidigal and Chacara do Ceu in the wee hours of Nov. 13. The next day, the elite Special Operations Police Battalion (BOPE) said they had uncovered the secret "mansion" of wanted drug lord Antônio Bonfim Lopez AKA "Nem" in Rocinha. "Nem" was reportedly arrested at the scene. The shanty-towns had long been controlled by drug gangs, and were a no-go zone for police. Authorities say they plan to pacify dozens more favelas ahead of the 2014 World Cup. (Noticias R7, Rio de Janeiro, Nov. 17; AFP, Nov. 15; AFP, Nov. 14)

The discovery of a drug tunnel linking San Diego and Tijuana warehouses led to the seizure of some 17 tons of cannabis as well as a large grow operation in the industrial area of Otay Mesa east of San Diego, US and Mexican authorities announced Nov. 16.

In the predawn hours of Nov. 9, the decapitated and mutilated body of an unidentified man was found at the Christopher Colombus monument in an upscale neighborhood of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. A message left under the decapitated head named the man as "El Rascatripas," a moderator for the website Nuevo Laredo en Vivo, where citizens anonymously report narco-violence.

A Nov. 9 rally in Sacramento to protest the US Department of Justice crackdown on California's medical marijuana industry brought out some 500 people, who gathered outside the Federal building to hear speakers from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), Americans for Safe Access (ASA), and other organizations before marching through the downtown area.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette issued an opinion Nov. 10 finding that law enforcement officers are not required to return confiscated medical marijuana to a patient or caregiver—even though a state law prohibits such seizures. Schuette said the provision in the state's 2008 medical marijuana statute is pre-empted by federal law.

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)

Mexican Governance Secretary Francisco Blake Mora was killed when his helicopter crashed Nov. 11 near Chalco, México state. Four other Governance Secretariat and three Air Force personnel were also killed in the crash. President Felipe Calderón said it was probably an accident caused by bad weather, but public speculation points to to a hit by one of Mexico's warring drug cartels. Skeptics noted that the government's most notorious Drug War hardliner is Public Security Secretary Genaro García Luna, and a more likely cartel target. However, the crash eerily comes one week after Blake Mora attended a memorial ceremony for Juan Camilo Mouriño, his predecessor who had been killed in a plane crash three years earlier. (NYT, El Economista, Nov. 11)

Health Canada is threatening to prosecute a Vancouver physician who says he has successfully using the Amazonian plant medicine ayahuasca to treat addiction. In a two-page letter sent last week, Johanne Beaulieu, director of Ottawa's Office of Controlled Substances, reminded Gabor Maté that possession of ayahuasca is illegal under Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The letter warned that unless he immediately ceased the treatments, the RCMP would be notified. Dr. Maté, a family practitioner who specializes in addiction, said he will reluctantly comply with the order.