Global Ganja Report

On Aug. 12, the California Chamber of Commerce held a press conference bashing Prop 19, claiming employers would have to permit employees to smoke marijuana at work. But First Amendment lawyer and Prop 19 author James Wheaton says the Chamber is lying. Employees don't have to let workers come to work drunk, and they wouldn't have to let them come to work high. Furthermore, employers can already fire employees at will, as well as if they fail a drug test, and that will not change if Prop 19 passes.

Reports are breaking that Dennis Peron, longtime San Francisco cannabis activist and co-author of California's 1996 medical marijuana initiative,  was raided at his home Aug. 4. Citing posts on Facebook, a report on Examiner.com says that Peron, who was recovering from a stroke, suffered a seizure as city police broke down his door.

Medical marijuana patient advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) filed a legal brief July 28 in a Ninth Circuit case aiming to correct statements by the federal government that "marijuana has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States." The ASA legal filing points to a policy directive issued last week by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), recognizing medical marijuana and distinguishing it from other illegal controlled substances. In its brief, ASA contends that the VHA directive bolsters advocates' arguments that cannabis does indeed have medical value.

Coordinated protests were held July 21 by medical marijuana patient advocates in both Saginaw, Mich., and San Diego, Calif., against the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) over several raids it conducted earlier this month. The raids came despite a Justice Department policy issued last October discouraging such actions.

Oakland's City Council July 20 approved regulations permitting what the San Francisco Chronicle called "industrial-scale" cannabis farms—over the protests of small growers who fear they will be squeezed out of the industry they helped build. To address such concerns, the council pledged to create regulations for small and medium-size grow operations later this year.

In a setback for the corporatization of cannabis, the US Patent Office has shelved consideration of  trademarks for medical marijuana products, according to a July 19 report in the Wall Street Journal:

California's medicinal cannabis growers see a downside to the normalization of their profession: the "Wal-Marting" of weed. The Oakland City Council this week will consider licensing four cannabis production facilities to service the medical market. Winning applicants would have to pay $211,000 in annual permit fees, carry $2 million worth of liability insurance and pay up to 8% of gross sales in taxes. This has raised fears that such measures could drive "mom and pop" growers out of business.

A multi-agency federal task force on July 7 descended on the property of Joy Greenfield of Covelo, the first Mendocino County patient to pay the $1,050 application fee under the county medical marijuana ordinance, which allows collectives to grow up to 99 plants provided they comply with regulations. Greenfield had applied in the name of her collective, Light The Way, which opened in San Diego earlier this year.