Global Ganja Report

The USA's premier cannabis education institution, Oakland's Oaksterdam University, boosted its legitimacy and ended a long-simmering internal issue May 27 with an announcement that the school is unionizing about 100 jobs. The Bay Area's UFCW Local 5 said that employees at Oaksterdam and five related enterprises have voted to join them, and separate elections are also being verified at cannabis hydroponics retailer iGrow and cultivation company AgraMed.

Police in the Humboldt County town of Arcata are warning LSD users to beware after responding to a rash of incidents apparently connected to bad acid trips. Police said the problems began last month when officers responded to a home where paramedics found a 31-year-old man who had castrated himself.

Fifteen Members of Congress sent a letter May 21 to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner urging him to issue "written guidance for financial institutions," that would commit the Department to not targeting institutions whose account holders are in compliance with state medical marijuana laws.

One day after robbers struck the South Bay Cannamed Patient Association in San Jose, Calif., on May 20, holding employees and customers at gunpoint, the local Medical Cannabis Collectives Coalition called on the City Council to act swiftly in drafting a medical marijuana ordinance. Stephen De Angelo, executive director of Harborside Health Center in San Jose and a spokesman for the coalition, said that in a legally regulated environment, collectives would be required to take basic security measures.

A North San Diego County medical marijuana provider, James Stacy, whose Vista dispensary was raided on Sept. 9 by a multi-agency narcotics task force, will be the first such case to go to trial since the Justice Department issued its new enforcement policy in October. Stacy's trial date is to be scheduled this week at a hearing where Stacy said he will argue that under the new policy he's entitled to admit evidence of compliance with state law—something routinely denied federal defendants.

Four California medical marijuana users who argue that bans on Orange County pot clinics violate the Americans with Disabilities Act appealed their case to the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Matthew Pappas, attorney for the users, said he will argue the case based on an interpretation of the equal protection clause in the 5th Amendment, and pointed to a 2009 congressional decision based on the clause that lifted a ban on medical marijuana in Washington DC.

A crowd of over 150 assembled May 14 at the Little Lake Grange in Willits, Calif., for the Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board's community forum. The event, entitled, "Medical Cannabis: State of Our Laws, Now and in the Future" featured County Supervisor John Pinches and Sheriff Tom Allman, as well as physicians, attorneys and activists. MMMAB advisory panel member Pebbles Trippet responded to audience questions fielded by supervisorial candidate and moderator Dan Hamburg. Following the forum, the three candidates for District Attorney answered questions.

Rick Morse, operator of the Medmar Clinic in Fresno, CA, is behind bars after a judge ruled that he violated a court order not to sell cannabis. During a court appearance May 14, Morse told Fresno County Superior Court Judge Donald Franson that he was still distributing cannabis. With the admission, Morse was handcuffed and ordered to spend 15 days in jail. He was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. Judge Franson also approved a request by Fresno's deputy city attorney to file a motion to shut down the dispensary. (AP, May 14)