Global Ganja Report

Vermont farmer Roger Pion, 34, jumped into his giant eight-wheel Case MX255 diesel tractor, headed to the police station in Newport town, and crushed more than seven squad cars Aug. 2, exacting vengeance for his arrest for cannabis possession last month. Pion then led cops on a low-speed chase through town before being apprehended a mile away. His act of retribution took out more than half of the district's squad car fleet. "We're going to have to get the jaws of life up here to pry the trunks open and see about the rifles and shotguns," Sheriff Kirk Martin told the Associated Press."The radios are ruined."

On Aug. 2, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) and seven initial co-sponsors introduced HR 6335, the States' Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act, in an attempt to stop the seizure of property from landlords of state law-compliant medical marijuana businesses. The introduction of HR 6335 comes less than a month after US Attorney Melinda Haag served an asset forfeiture suit against the landlord of Harborside, a dispensary in Rep. Lee's district, in Oakland. The Justice Department action was opposed by Rep. Lee, and also sparked an outcry from local and state officials, including City Council members, the Oakland city attorney, and the Board of Equalization.

There is growing support in Lebanon's cannabis-producing eastern region (the Bekaa Valley, for centuries a major hashish production zone) for a proposal from Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt for the government to legalize and purchase the crop from the area's struggling farmers, establishing a program of controlled distribution for medicinal purposes. Advocates of the proposal say the yearly eradication of the cannabis crop by the Central Drug Control Office has led to corruption, and is breeding resentment.

As Barack Obama pressed the flesh at a fundraiser in Oakland's historic Fox Theater July 23, hundreds of medical marijuana supporters rallied nearby to oppose the Justice Department crackdown on California's dispensaries—and particularly to support the city's Harborside Health Center, now facing federal forfeiture proceedings. Speakers at the rally included many patients who said cannabis had helped them—and Stephen DeAngelo, Harborside's executive director, who called for a halt to actions against dispensaries and said the Justice Department should instead focus on the violent crime that plagues Oakland. "We are here for every medical cannabis patient around the world," DeAngelo said. Later, the cannabis advocates joined Occupy Oakland and assorted anti-war activists to block the intersection of 19th Street and Broadway. Police reported two arrests. (San Francisco Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, July 23)

The fourth bi-annual Kush Expo opened July 21 at the Anaheim Convention Center—an exposition of the latest in medical marijuana trends and technology, as well as an unabashed celebration of cannabis culture. This Expo was by far the largest, with more than 150 vendors, and over 14,000 attendees. Exhibitions ran the spectrum from a Los Angeles laboratory that tests homegrown cannabis strains for THC levels and for pesticides, to a Hot Kush Girl contest (OC Register, July 22) But as entrepreneurs and revelers schmoozed and toked in the convention center, police repression and angry protests were sweeping the streets of Anaheim... 

Brooklyn judge Gustin Reichbach, who won notoriety two months ago when he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times expressing his support for medical marijuana, died July 14 after a nearly three-year struggle with pancreatic cancer. In his May 16 op-ed, he wrote: "My survival has demanded an enormous price, including months of chemotherapy, radiation hell and brutal surgery... Inhaled marijuana is the only medicine that gives me some relief from nausea, stimulates my appetite, and makes it easier to fall asleep." 

Mark Bagdasarian, a cannabis dispensary owner in Clovis, Calif, already facing possession and distribution charges, was hit with federal money laundering charges July 16. Federal prosecutors say Bagdasarian laundered money through ATMs at his Buds 4 Life dispensaries in Tarpey Village and Friant. Bagdasarian pleaded not guilty to the new charges. Prosecutors say Bagdasarian would take cash from cannabis sales—illegal under federal law—and load it into the ATMs at the dispensaries, to be withdrawn by customers.

On July 17, US Representative Sam Farr (D-CA) and 18 co-sponsors introduced HR 6134, the "Truth in Trials" Act—bipartisan legislation to allow defendants in federal criminal prosecutions the ability to use medical marijuana evidence at trial. Because of a June 2005 US Supreme Court ruling in Gonzales v. Raich, the government has the discretion to enforce federal marijuana laws even in states that have passed medical marijuana laws. The Raich ruling also allows federal prosecutors to exclude all evidence concerning medical use or state law compliance in federal trials, virtually guaranteeing the convictions of medical marijuana patients and providers.