Global Ganja Report

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.

With plenty of time to spare, medical marijuana advocates filed more than 50,000 signatures Aug. 29 in an effort to overturn a recently passed ban on dispensaries throughout the city. Despite an outcry from patient advocates, the Los Angeles City Council adopted an outright ban last month on medical marijuana distribution within the city limits. The ban came after the city failed over a more than four-year period to develop regulations suitable for providing medical marijuana to the tens of thousands of area patients.

On July 25, the Los Angeles, the City Counted voted 14-0 to ban medical marijuana dispensaries. Each of the 762 dispensaries that have registered with the city are to be sent a letter ordering them to shut down immediately under threat of legal action. Cannabis advocates packed the council chambers and met the vote with jeers; more than a dozen LAPD officers were called in to quell them. Under the ban, medical patients and their caregivers will be able to grow and share cannabis in small groups of three or less. In a seemingly contradictory move, the council also voted to instruct city staff to draw up an ordinance that would allow a group of about 170 dispensaries that registered with the city several years ago to remain open. (LAT, July 24)

Thanks to last year's redistricting, California now has a new Second Congressional District that some call the "Emerald Triangle District"—running from the Golden Gate to the Oregon border, through the cannabis counties of Mendocino, Humboldt and Trinity. The primary is in five days, and under California's new open-primary system, the two leading vote-getters will move on to the November general election, regardless of party. In the field of 12, the most outspoken herbal advocate is Garberville's veteran Earth First! tree-hugger Andy Caffrey.

With Massachusetts lawmakers deadlocked over medical marijuana legislation, the question seems more likely to go before the commonwealth's voters in November. Two bills before the Public Health Committee on legalizing medical marijuana (S 1161 and H 625) have been sent to "study"—a move that almost always ends the chances of a bill passing. A ballot measure on the issue will only be averted if backers fail to collect 11,485 certified signatures by July 3 or if they drop their effort in deference to a plan in the legislature to pass an alternative proposal—neither of which now seem probable. (Statehouse News Service, April 10)

Five bills have been introduced this year in Sacramento concerning cannabis and medical marijuana, winning varying degrees of support from activists and the cannabis industry. Most likely to pass is San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano's Assembly Bill 2312, which would regulate medical marijuana at the state level instead of letting each city and county take differing approaches to interpreting the law. AB 2312 would create a Board of Medical Marijuana Enforcement within the state Department of Consumer Affairs to approve or deny permits for growing, processing, testing, transporting, distributing and selling medical cannabis.

Washington's I-502—an initiative approved for the ballot in December—is creating a storm of dissension within the state's cannabis community. The measure would legalize possession of up to one ounce of cannabis by adults 21 and over, but limit sales to state-licensed stores overseen by the liquor control board. It contains no provision permitting home grow. It also contains a Driving Under the Influence of Cannabis (DUIC) provision that would make anyone guilty if they test at above 5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) of active THC in blood. Critics call this an unscientific and arbitrary level.

Legislators in Colorado face a bill that would establish the nation's first "responsible medical marijuana vendor" designation, giving cannabis business the option to train employees in a state-approved program. The state Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division already requires cannabis workers to undergo background checks. Employees must wear state-issued badges and be under video surveillance at all times they are handling cannabis seeds, plants or products. The proposed "responsible vendor" designation would go to businesses whose employees have had additional training in such issues as identifying legal medical marijuana cards.