Global Ganja Report

Five cannabis dispensaries were raided by a multi-agency task force in Southern California Oct. 6, with 11 arrested in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties. Among those targeted was the Alternative Medicine Collective of Covina. "This organization was definitely working outside the law," said Capt. Ralph Ornelas of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Narcotics Bureau said. "Our investigation proved they were charging people and making a profit out of it. You're not supposed to make a profit."

Doc Green's Healing Collective, producers of the cannabis-infused Doc Green's Therapeutic Healing Cream, has received a letter from Wells Fargo sating that the business' account has been closed pending review—citing the "nature of the business." Doc Green's co-founder Ramona Moonflower Rubin told Global Ganja Report business is now paralyzed, and the collective is considering its options. Rubin notes the irony: "We are producers of topical cannabis products that don't have any psychoactive effect. They don't get users high, they just provide pain relief when applied directly to the affected area."

San Diego area medical marijuana dispensary operator Jovan Jackson was convicted by a jury Sept. 28 on all three counts of possession and sales. The conviction came after San Diego Superior Court Judge Howard H. Shore refused to allow Jackson a medical defense at trial. The jury took less than 24 hours to reach a verdict. Jackson is likely to appeal the conviction and his inability to use a medical defense. Leading medical marijuana patients' rights group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) had previously submitted a brief in Jackson's case supporting his right to a medical defense and is considering assisting with an appeal.

The Obama administration opposes legalizing marijuana and views medical marijuana dubiously as well, said Kevin Sabet, special adviser for policy at the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Marijuana cannot be the one exception in history of the world that doesn’t go through a scientific process to be approved as medicine," Sabet told the Montana Supreme Court Administrator's annual drug court conference in Helena. “It doesn’t make any sense. “How can we imagine that a dangerous, illegal drug like marijuana should be voted on by the people? That’s not how we do medicine in this country.”

In a joint hearing of the Senate and Assembly Committees on Public Safety in Sacramento Sept. 21, proponents and opponents weighed in on California's Proposition 19. In the latter category was, surprisingly, the California Cannabis Association, an alliance of medical users which has launched a website called Keep Cannabis Medical. "Proposition 19 is a direct assault on medical marijuana patients," Cap Radio quoted George Mull, the group's president. "Prop 19 is deeply flawed, and creates a chaotic, local, 'you figure it out' approach to marijuana regulation. That won't work."

Opening arguments began Sept. 20 for the second trial in less than a year against Jovan Jackson, a San Diego medical marijuana patient and dispensary operator who was arrested in a multi-agency raid in September 2009. A jury acquitted Jackson in December of possession and distribution charges stemming from a 2008 arrest. This time, however, District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis convinced Superior Court Judge Howard H. Shore to deny Jackson a medical defense, seriously limiting his chances of a second acquittal.

The results of a national survey on drug use and health were issued Sept. 15 by the federal government, noting a surge in the use of marijuana and other drugs such as ecstasy and methamphetamine. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the US Department of Health and Human Services publishes the annual study, which is often used by the "drug czar" to highlight the status of the so-called "War on Drugs." Although the government claims that prescription drug abuse is its highest priority, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) took the opportunity to rail against medical marijuana use.

Americans for Safe Access, the country's leading medical marijuana patient advocacy group, issued letters Sept. 1 to more than 140 localities across California with bans on distribution, demanding that they come into compliance with state law. The letters were sent two weeks after California's Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a long-awaited decision rejecting the argument that local or state dispensary laws are preempted by federal law. The case of Qualified Patients Association v. City of Anaheim was sent back to Superior Court for further factual development and eventual trial.