Global Ganja Report

The clandestine online activist network Anonymous has released an Internet video demanding that Los Zetas, Mexico's bloodiest drug cartel, release one of its members who was kidnapped from a street protest in Veracruz. The Anonymous spokesman—in tie, jacket and Guy Fawkes mask—says if the Zetas don't release their comrade, it will publish the identities and addresses of the syndicate's associates. Speaking in Spanish with fluent use of Mexican slang, the masked spokesman says: "You made a huge mistake by taking one of us. Release him." Otherwise it threatens to reveal the Zetas' "cars, homes, bars, brothels and everything else in their possession. It won't be difficult; we all know who they are and where they are located."

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), the country's largest cannabis patients advocacy organization, filed suit in federal court Oct. 27 challenging the Obama administration's attempt to subvert local and state medical marijuana laws in California. ASA argues in its lawsuit that Obama's Department of Justice (DoJ) has "instituted a policy to dismantle the medical marijuana laws of the State of California and to coerce its municipalities to pass bans on medical marijuana dispensaries." The DoJ policy has involved aggressive SWAT-style raids, criminal prosecutions of medical marijuana patients and providers, and threats to local officials for merely implementing state law.

Eviction notices from local and federal authorities shut down eight cannabis dispensaries in Orange County's Lake Forest this week, after years of litigation over zoning and more than $600,000 in legal fees. The dispensaries, in suites on the second floor of a strip mall, included Lake Forest Patients Group, Pharmers' Choice, Cannabis Permanente, Evergreen Holistic, Cooperative, Florentina Organic, Independent Collective of Orange County and The Health Collective.

Workers at seven Fort Collins cannabis dispensaries officially affiliated Oct. 17 with Colorado's largest labor union in an effort to further legitimize and protect the medical marijuana industry. Union organizers said an "overwhelmingly" large majority of the Fort Collins workers voted to join the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), making Colorado the second state in the US, after California, where some cannabis industry workers have formally unionized.

Conservative community groups have launched a ballot initiative to ban cannabis dispensaries in Fort Collins—the only Northern Colorado city that allows dispensaries to operate, under state and local restrictions. Supporters of Question 300, which will be on the ballot Nov. 1, say the dispensaries have made cannabis too available and are increasing crime. A coalition of dispensary owners and patients says dispensaries are the only safe, regulated way for people with legitimate needs to obtain medical cannabis. They argue that closing dispensaries would push more growing operations into residential areas, take tax revenue away from the city, and put about 200 locals out of work. (Loveland Reporter-Herald, Oct. 8)

Supporters of California's medical marijuana laws will be protesting the Department of Justice crackdown on dispensaries and providers when President Barack Obama comes to visit San Francisco on Oct 25. Demonstrators will be protesting at the at the Hotel W, on the corner of 3rd and Mission from 10:30 AM to 3 PM. A preceding press conference will be held at 10 AM at the Marriott Hotel, 299 Second St, Room #3.

Peru's National Police report the seizure of nearly a ton of cocaine, after two operations coordinated with the army in the conflicted Apurímac-Ene River Valley (VRAE)—stronghold of the remnant Shining Path guerillas, now said to be working with local narco gangs.

For the third time in as many weeks, DEA agents raided a Southern Oregon medical cannabis grow Oct. 14. Homeowner Clifford Ruhland said the 100-plant operation in Central Point was in compliance with state law. The plants were confiscated, but no arrests made. Ruhland expressed his exasperation: "From my personal perspective it's kind of like... why are you even here? Isn't there something more important, that's affecting people's lives in a real important way, than being here right now?" Medical advocates gathered outside the property when news broke of the raid. (KDRV, Oct. 14)