Global Ganja Report

The California Supreme Court issued an order Jan. 18 indicating its intent to review two controversial medical marijuana cases that have resulted in the suspension of several local dispensary ordinances across the state. As a result of the order, Pack v. City of Long Beach and City of Riverside v. Inland Empire Patient's Health and Wellness Ctr., Inc. have both been vacated in anticipation of the high court's ruling. The Pack decision held that dispensary regulations may be preempted by federal law, and the Riverside decision held that localities could legally ban distribution altogether.

A five-county study assessing impacts on salmonids presented Jan. 10 in Eureka, CA, named unpermitted grading as a major impact—and cited the cannabis industry as a key culprit. Humboldt County's Supervisor Mark Lovelace said the effects of illegal grading connected to cannabis grows are as bad as the impacts seen during the worst years of the timber industry. "It's shocking," he said, referring to photos he'd viewed of grow-related grading. "It compares with the worst of the worst from some of the bad years of the timber industry."

On Jan. 11—at exactly 4:20 PM—three medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of San Diego were raided by the cross-jurisdictional Narcotic Task Force (NTF) of San Diego County. The locations attacked included California's Best Meds on University Ave., Golden West in North Park, and San Diego Organic Wellness Association in Pacific Beach. Armed with handguns, rifles, and battering rams, dozens of masked NTF officers rushed into the facilities, breaking down doors and windows, and forcing all patients inside to the floor.

Colorado US Attorney John Walsh on Jan. 12 issued an ultimatum in letters to 23 dispensaries and landlords he claimed are in violation of federal and state law. The dispensaries, which he said are located within 1,000 feet of schools, were given 45 days to cease operations or face civil and criminal penalties. "When the voters of Colorado passed the limited medical marijuana amendment in 2000, they could not have anticipated that their vote would be used to justify large marijuana stores located within blocks of our schools," Walsh said in a statement announcing the letters. 

Officials in Mendocino County revealed Jan. 11 that the US Attorney's Office in San Francisco had threatened to sue the county over its medical marijuana cultivation permit program, prompting its suspension. The warning was delivered at a Jan. 3 meeting between County Counsel Jeanine Nadel and representatives of the US Attorney's Office, Nadel said. County supervisors are scheduled to review the permit ordinance on Jan. 24. The program was also suspended pending the outcome of a Southern California court case that tests the legitimacy of issuing permits for cannabis-related endeavors—the reason given by officials at the time of the suspension on Jan 9.

Mendocino County's unique income-generating medical marijuana cultivation permit process has been suspended, officials announced Jan. 9. The decision was made in light of a Southern California court case that challenges the legality of issuing permits for activities that are illegal under federal law.

Moderate cannabis use appears to cause no long-term damage to the lungs, according to a new study by the University of California at San Francisco and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, released Jan. 10 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Results of the 20-year study, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, indicate that cannabis doesn't do the kind of damage tobacco does.

A federal judge on Jan. 4 granted an American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) request to throw out a lawsuit filed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer seeking to strike down the state's voter-approved medical marijuana law. Filed in May, Brewer's suit argued that state officials could face federal prosecution for implementing the law—despite Arizona's then-US Attorney Dennis Burke stating publicly that the federal government has "no intention of targeting or going after people who are implementing or who are in compliance with state law." In throwing out the suit, US District Court Judge Susan R. Bolton said there is no genuine threat of imminent federal prosecution of state officials who carry out the law.