Global Ganja Report

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!

The Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Fairfax—California's oldest cannabis dispensary—is preparing to close its doors  following a Dec. 2 ruling by Marin County Superior Court Judge Roy Chernus, who refused to stop the club's pending eviction. Chernus found that the dispensary's lease requires compliance with federal law, which forbids selling cannabis. MAMM founder Lynnette Shaw told Global Ganja Report by e-mail Dec. 5: "We are moving ourselves shortly to an unspecified location for storage. Maybe even today. Sigh..."

An internal Justice Department memo containing guidelines for federal cannabis enforcement in California, issued in February, has been leaked to California NORML, and is now on the website of the California Cannabis Coalition. It was issued jointly by the four California US attorneys to DEA agents in the state, the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task-forces, and "Federal task force partners in California." Marked "Not for public use or circulation," it outlines criteria for federal involvement in cannabis cases, such as "Distribution of significant quantities," "Provable ties to an international drug cartel," "Marijuana 'inventory' obtained from cultivation on federal or tribal land," "Store operations in conjunction with other federal crimes," etc.

Scores of cannabis dispensaries in San Diego County have closed following the federal crackdown announced in October. As of the end of November, 139 of 222 medical cannabis outlets—or 62%—have shut down since the US Attorney's office in San Diego began sending letters to the dispensaries and their landlords. About a third of those targeted are still operating, but some 20 more outlets are expected to close within the next two weeks, according to federal authorities. Another round of letters from the US Attorney's Office—some hand-delivered by DEA agents—were sent within the past week to dispensaries that remain open.

Medical marijuana patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) on Nov. 22 appealed the September 2010 conviction of San Diego dispensary operator Jovan Jackson in a case that has become a symbol of the effort by District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis to criminalize storefront dispensaries. California Attorney General Kamala Harris—who served as San Francisco DA when that city established the state's first dispensaries—will now defend Jackson's appeal rather than Dumanis, who originally tried him. The ASA appeal contests Jackson's denial of a medical defense, and challenges the prosecution's assertion that "sales" of medical marijuana are illegal under state law.

Advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) issued a letter Nov. 17 urging that Los Angeles' prestigious Cedars-Sinai Medical Center promptly re-list 63-year-old patient Norman B. Smith for a liver transplant. Smith was diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer in 2009 and became eligible for a transplant at Cedars-Sinai the following year. Smith's oncologist at Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Steven Miles, approved of his cannabis use to deal with the effects of chemotherapy and pain from an unrelated back surgery. But in February he was removed from the transplant list after testing positive for cannabis use.

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.

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.