Global Ganja Report

Mario Ernesto Villanueva Madrid, ex-governor of the Mexican state of Quintana Roo, was extradited to the US on May 10 to face charges of accepting some $20 millions in bribes from the notorious Juárez Cartel in exchange for allowing in the transport of over 200 tons of cocaine through his state towards North American markets. US prosecutors say the money was laundered through accounts at Lehman Brothers in New York. Appearing in federal court in New York the day of his extradition, Villanueva pleaded not guilty to all charges.

A supposed member of the rebel Army of the Paraguayan People (EPP), identifying himself as "Máximo Brizuela," called into radio station Primero de Marzo on May 10 to take responsibility for an attack that left four dead, including a police officer, on April 21 at the department of Concepción. President Fernando Lugo has meanwhile deployed extra police and army troops to the country's north, a major marijuana-producing region. The impoverished South American country has recently emerged as a major cannabis producer—with the government crackdown on cultivation occasioning the predictable rights abuses. (World War 4 Report, May 10)

Peru's Sendero Luminoso guerillas, thought to be confined to a small pocket of high jungle known as the Apurimac-Ene River Valley (VRAE), on April 27 launched an attack on a government coca-eradication team in the Upper Huallaga Valley, a region to the north of the VRAE that had been the rebels' principal stronghold in the 1990s. One National Police officer and two eradication workers with Special Control and Reduction Project (CORAH) were killed in the ambush at Alto Corvina, Huánuco region.

Mexico's prosecutor general of Military Justice, José Luis Chávez, announced May 1 that following a joint investigation with civilian prosecutors, it was determined that drug cartel gunmen, not soldiers, were responsible for the deaths of two children during a confrontation in the northern state of Tamaulipas.

A judge on May 7 ruled that officials in San Jose, Calif., may continue to threaten landlords of medical marijuana cooperatives with fines of up to $2,500 a day—a practice that has resulted in the eviction of at least one cannabis club. Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Kevin Murphy ruled against the medical marijuana collectives, citing a lack of evidence to issue a ban on city officials from sending the letters. However, he did not throw out the case entirely. Murphy will listen to arguments from both sides at a hearing June 25.

C-15, the draconian anti-cannabis legislation that has been languishing in Canada's parliament, was reintroduced May 5 by MP Rob Nicholson (Tory-Ontario) as Bill S-10. The bill is slightly more lenient, with a nine-year mandatory minimum sentence kicking in at six plants, not one. It also imposes mandatory minimum sentences for making any hashish or baked goods, and a host of other offenses.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed an ordinance May 3 that will shut 439 medical marijuana dispensaries in the city and impose stricter regulations on the 186 remaining outlets. Under the order, the dispensaries must shut down by June 7, when the city's ordinance to regulate medical marijuana takes effect. Letters, sent to both dispensary operators and property owners, warn that violation of the city laws is a misdemeanor that could lead to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Collectives that stay open after the deadline could also face civil penalties of $2,500 a day.

The Bolivian state-supported company, Social Organization for the Industrailization of Coca (Ospicoca), began marketing this week a new carbonated energy drink called "Coca Colla"--which, unlike Coca-Cola, really does contain extract of coca leaf. "Colla" is a reference to the traditional name for the Aymara indigenous people of Bolivia, who have used coca leaf ritually for centuries. The initiative has the support of Evo Morales, the country's first Aymara president.