Global Ganja Report

California's new Cannabis Law Institute has become the first marijuana law education group to be certified by the State Bar as a "Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE) Multiple Activity Provider" and is authorized to offer official California MCLE credit for legal education activities. Only a handful of spots are left in their first 75-person seminar, to be held June 5 at the Hilton Sonoma for $420 a head.

The Montana Board of Medical Examiners found that Whitefish physician Dr. Patricia Cole's past work with medical marijuana patients "amounts to unprofessional conduct" and ordered her to pay a $2,000 fine in a May 21 decision.

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.

A Montana lawmaker is calling for a bill to overturn the state's 2004 medical marijuana initiative in the next legislative session. State Sen. Jim Shockley (R-Victor), said that the law is flawed because it provides no control over dosage, distribution, or growing.

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.

The city of Eugene, Ore., held a Cannabis Cup at a medical clinic May 22, where card holders got to test various strains of cannabis to determine which one best helped their conditions. "We had 25 different patients try 18 different strands of cannabis and give us there perspective on how it helps with their debilitating diseases and symptoms," said organizer Jim Greig.

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.