Global Ganja Report

The Montana Supreme Court ruled Sept. 11 that there is no fundamental right to cultivation, distribution or use of medical marijuana. Plaintiffs in the case sought to block enactment of a 2011 law, SB 423, a more restrictive measure that repealed an earlier law permitting the use of  medical  marijuana in the Big Sky state. Plaintiffs asserted that the new law violates rights of employment, health and privacy guaranteed by Montana's constitution. But the justices did not agree, with Justice Michael Wheat writing: "In pursuing one's own health, an individual has a fundamental right to obtain and reject medical treatment... But, this right does not extend to give a patient a fundamental right to use any drug, regardless of its legality." 

More than 26,000 cannabis plants from what authorities called a "sophisticated grow operation" were eradicated on Hoopa Valley tribal land in California's Humboldt County on Aug. 7. The Hoopa Tribal Police worked with the Sheriff's office, the Humboldt County drug task force, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the US Marshals Office, the California Department of Justice Narcotics Enforcement, the Bureau of Land Management and the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, according to a statement from the office of the sheriff. The Hoopa Valley Tribe, already hit hard by the methamphetamine plague, expressed outrage that large-scale growers had trespassed on their lands.

The owner of a medical dispensary in Eugene, Ore., faces felony charges after police raided his business and two residential properties he owns Aug. 30. Detectives with Lane County's Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team executed warrant at Kannabosm, a dispensary that opened in June 2011. Police said Kannabosm's owner, 58-year-old Douglas County resident Curtis Dean Shimmin, was arrested and released from the Lane County Jail after being booked on charges of money laundering, tampering with physical evidence, and possessing, distributing and manufacturing marijuana.

A conservative Arkansas group seeking to prevent the state from becoming the first in the South to allow medical marijuana filed a lawsuit on Aug. 30 to remove an initiative from the November election ballot. The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act qualified for the ballot after a statewide petition drive gathered the required amount of signatures. But the suit, filed in the state Supreme Court by the Coalition to Preserve Arkansas Values, argues the ballot's title is misleading and the text vaguely worded.

Richard Flor, a Montana medical marijuana patient and caregiver who was sentenced in April to five years in federal prison on charges of maintaining a drug-related premises, died in federal custody Aug. 29. Flor, who suffered from a lengthy list of serious medical conditions, died in a hospital in Las Vegas, Nev., a day after suffering two heart attacks while in transit to an unknown Bureau of Prisons medical facility, according to his attorney, Brad Arndorfer of Billings. At Flor’s sentencing, US District Judge Charles Lovell recommended that he "be designated for incarceration at a federal medical center” where Flor’s “numerous physical and mental diseases and conditions can be evaluated and treated."

The feds are promising an especially aggressive crackdown on Emerald Triangle cannabis growers this harvest season. "It's one of the most beautiful parts of this country, but it's just being destroyed by marijuana cultivation," said Randy Wagner, the DEA special agent in charge of Northern California operations. "I can tell you, we're going to be hot and heavy in Humboldt County from here on out." An Aug. 26 report n the Eureka Times-Standard says the feds are frustrated with the ongoing dispute over medical marijuana in California and determined to pick up the slack following harsh budget cuts at the state's Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. The report suggests local enforcement is ready to cooperate directly with the DEA, even with reduced state involvement.

The California Supreme Court dismissed review Aug. 22 of an important appellate court ruling affecting medical marijuana dispensaries throughout the state. In throwing out the controversial decision in Pack v. City of Long Beach, the high court rejected the notion that federal law preempts some forms of dispensary regulations. The Pack decision has been used by several municipalities, including Los Angeles and Long Beach, to suspend or ban outright the distribution of medical marijuana. However, yesterday's dismissal of the Pack decision throws into question the viability of such bans.

The New Jersey Department of Health announced this week that physicians can now register qualified patients for the state's medical marijuana program—a move that won support for Republican Gov. Chris Christie from the first dispensary to open in the Garden State. "At one point we felt that the progression of the program installation was slow," according to Julio Valentin of Greenleaf Compassion in Montclair. "But we understand that Gov. Christie and the state of New Jersey is doing the best they can to cross their T's and dot their I's to make this program as successful as possible." Valentin, who intends to hang a framed photo of Christie on the walls of the dispensary, hails the governor for giving them "the green light." (ABC News, Aug. 10)