The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a collective providing cannabis under California’s 1996 Compassionate Use Act (Prop. 215), along with the city and county of Santa Cruz, have reached a settlement in their unprecedented lawsuit against the federal government. The suit, Santa Cruz v. Holder (previously Santa Cruz v. Gonzales and originally Santa Cruz v. Ashcroft), began in 2002 and aimed to halt the Bush Administration's interference with state medical marijuana laws.

WAMM's case was prompted by the US Drug Enforcement Administration's raid of their medicinal garden in Davenport on September 5, 2002, in which armed agents terrorized residents and patients, and seized more than 160 cannabis plants.

On January 22, 2010, Valerie and Michael Corral presented a statement to the US District Court in San Jose on behalf of themselves and other members of WAMM. In conclusion, they assert:

"We hope that over time the federal government will recognize its senseless position on medical marijuana and will formally codify protections for sick, dying and marginalized patients who have the right to use whatever substances their physicians recommend to ease suffering. We are nonetheless, heartened by the federal government's newly declared position suggesting deference to state medical marijuana laws and we are extraordinarily proud of our Collective's role in effecting this change in policy. However, should our government break their word and again pursue their senseless assault on the sick and dying, we stand at the ready and we promise to hold them accountable in a court of law."

Read the Full Statement | Previous coverage: WAMM Collective Wins Prestigious Award, Survives Wildfire

The Santa Cruz Planning Commission passed a new medical marijuana dispensary ban recommendation in mid-November, essentially rubber-stamping the staff's proposal. It mirrors the 'Reefer Madness' hysteria of other cities, eager to demonize and limit marijuana sales.

A local attorney interested in supporting a small medical marijuana dispensing service advised Robert Norse that the Planning Commission and City Council planned to put the new medical marijuana dispensary ban on the first agenda of the New Year (Jan. 12). However, the City Council agenda, released January 7th, indicates that the dispensary ban will not be on the agenda. The dispensary ban might be placed on the January 26th agenda, but it is not clear at this point. Read more

Previous coverage: Planning Commission Hearing May Seal Fate of New Medical Marijuana Clubs in Santa Cruz | Prohibition on New Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Passed by Santa Cruz City Council

For reasons unknown, Cannabis Culture Magazine's Facebook page has been disabled by the popular social networking site. The page, which had over 25,000 fans, disappeared on December 23, 2009.

Shortly afterward, administrators of the page received an email notification stating that the page violated Facebook's terms of use. Cannabis Culture editors contacted Facebook and hope to have the page reinstated soon. They are still trying to figure out how the page violated Facebook's terms, and are hopeful that Facebook does not consider discussion of cannabis to be "obscene."

According to Cheryl Shuman, Executive Director of Beverly Hills NORML 90210, her Facebook account was also removed on December 23, 2009. Shuman reports that, "Within 24 hours of me updating my posts to include that I'm beginning a national media campaign for Beverly Hills NORML, my account was just pulled!"

Read More | Cannabis Culture Magazine | Beverly Hills NORML 90210

Canadian authorities, acting at the behest of U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency officials, arrested seed distributor, activist and magazine publisher Marc Emery, often referred to as the "Prince of Pot", and two associates on July 29th, 2005 on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, conspiracy to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering, following an 18-month investigation.

Emery and supporters spent years fighting extradition, but on January 14th, 2008, he agreed to a tentative plea-bargain with US authorities. The terms of the agreement were a 5-year prison term to be served in both Canadian and U.S. prisons. In return, he demanded the charges against his friends be dropped. On March 27th, 2008 the plea-bargain deal collapsed because of the refusal of the Canadian government to approve its side of the arrangement. On September 21st, 2009, he pleaded guilty to a charge of manufacturing marijuana. Emery surrendered into the custody of the British Columbia Supreme Court on September 28th, 2009 and is awaiting extradition to a US federal prison. He will try to get a transfer to a Canadian prison once he begins his term.

The arrest of Marc Emery was politically motivated. The US Drug Enforcement Administration stated in a press release from Administrator Karen Tandy that his July 29th, 2005 arrest was based on drug legalization efforts:

"Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group -- is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement. His marijuana trade and propagandist marijuana magazine have generated nearly $5 million a year in profits that bolstered his trafficking efforts, but those have gone up in smoke today. Emery and his organization had been designated as one of the Attorney General's most wanted international drug trafficking organizational targets -- one of only 46 in the world and the only one from Canada. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on."

Read more | Facts About Marc Emery | Cannabis Culture | NoExtradition.net | WhyProhibition.ca | Pot TV

Fresno County was the focus of the War on Drugs, as Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (also known as the Drug Czar), came to town. Kerlikowske and Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims held a press conference to announce operation Save our Sierra (SOS), which has now resulted in 90 arrests and approximately $1.4 billion worth of marijuana plants seized.

Mims said Mexican drug cartels are behind most of the marijuana being grown in the Sierra mountains, east of Fresno. At the time of last Wednesday's press conference, 81 of the 82 people arrested in the raids were Latinos. Speakers emphasized the damage done to the environment by marijuana growers, displaying fertilizers, pesticides, and trash left behind at the camps.

But Nancy Botwin (not her real name), a marijuana grower at the 3,000 foot elevation in eastern Fresno County with over 10 years of experience in the business, said she has never seen any sign of the Mexican Mafia in the Sierra. Botwin says she has, however, seen plenty of evidence of the SOS campaign. "They have been flying back and forth in their military helicopters for a couple of weeks now," Botwin said. "A couple of days ago they hovered over a garden a few hundred yards from here. What that did was tell the locals where the pot is at. Sure enough, a local teenager went down and harvested the pot and he was busted later in the day."

Read more and view photos

On June 23rd, the Santa Cruz City Council passed a 45-day moratorium on new medical marijuana dispensaries in the city limits. Councilmembers said they needed the moratorium because they claimed there was a flood of daily inquiries to the city's Planning Department about opening medical marijuana centers. The are two pending applications for dispensaries on the Westside of Santa Cruz.

There are two existing dispensaries currently operating in the Harvey West area of Santa Cruz. However, local medical marijuana patient Craig Canada reports that he buys his medication from dispensaries in San Francisco where the prices are more competitive. Proponents of medical marijuana hope that additional dispensaries in Santa Cruz will result in more affordable prices locally.

There were lots of public comments at the June 23rd meeting, but there was not any council discussion after the public input session. The real moratorium on the two pending applications is at least 70 days since the Zoning Commission doesn't meet in August. And then one staff person can unilaterally extend the moratorium for nine months if the staff person finds they didn't "have enough time". Read more

The Santa Cruz City Council Measure K Oversight Committee held their most recent meeting on June 15th. As directed in Santa Cruz Municipal Code Section 9.84.060, the Committee is charged with overseeing the implementation of SCMC Chapter 9.84 which makes "Adult Marijuana Criminal Offenses" the "Lowest Law Enforcement Priority."

Measure K was passed by 64% of the voters in 2006. Since then it has been depleted by City Council hostility, staff negligence, city attorney and Santa Cruz Police Department (SCPD) intervention, and the failure of activists to challenge the situation.

HUFF (Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom) published a video and notes from the June 15th meeting held in City Council Chambers. HUFF notes the following points of particular concern:

1) The Measure K Oversight Committee is being denied substantive and detailed police documentation relating to citations/arrests involving marijuana.
2) The Committee is limited to two meetings per calendar year.
3) An agenda item slated for discussion at the December 2009 Measure K meeting proposes that even fewer meetings be scheduled in the future.
4) Minutes of the meeting are not made available to Committee members until roughly a week before the next meeting.
5) There was no SCPD liaison present.

Video and notes from the June 15, 2009 meeting

See also: Rump Measure K Committee Excludes Public Comment, Loses Audio Tape || Measure K Committee Old-Timer To Air Concerns at Committee Meeting || Gutted and Depleted Measure K Commission

City of Santa Cruz documents: 12/15/08 || 2/21/07 || 7/25/06

Each year on April 20th, at 4:20pm, people celebrate and smoke cannabis together. One of the biggest gathering spots in California, perhaps the biggest, is Porter Meadow at UC Santa Cruz. It's a large event for the whole community - a place where thousands of people can have a picnic, play with musical instruments, frisbees, kites and just have fun. It's in a safe and relatively secluded location and problems are rare.

In past years, the usual practice has been for a police officer and an administrator to come by towards 5:30 and urge people to move on. By that time, most folks have been there for a few hours and are pretty much ready to go, so the event gradually fizzles out. But in recent years, something changed.

In an April 7th, 2009 message to students, UCSC's Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs writes that Four Twenty "diminishes UCSC’s reputation and draws negative attention to the campus" and then goes on to list numerous restrictions curtailing the ability for students to associate with their friends and move freely around campus. Students are vowing to defy UCSC's “no-guest” policy, while pointing out that UCSC is an open and public campus.

Four Twenty at UCSC | Photos | Fascism and pacificism at 420 | 420 in Golden Gate Park, SF

During the 2008 presidential campaign, candidate Barack Obama, along with other major Democratic candidates, promised to stop the federal government's raids on medical cannabis dispensaries. Medical cannabis-related raids continued, in South Lake Tahoe in January and in Mendocino County in February. Several national cannabis advocacy organizations encouraged supporters of medical cannabis to write to President Obama to ask him to stop the raids. Medical cannabis patients became concerned that Obama's words had merely been an empty campaign promise, or that he could not reign in the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency).

In a February 25th press conference with DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that ending federal medical marijuana raids "is now American policy." His exact words were, "What the President said during the campaign...is consistent with what we will be doing here in law enforcement. He was my boss in the campaign....He is my boss now. What he said in the campaign is now American policy." Cannabis advocates across the country see this as a major victory. However, no federal laws have been changed; cannabis is still classified as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. Americans for Safe Access is still encouraging cannabis advocates to write to the President to ask him to authorize more advanced scientific research into the herb's benefits and to reschedule cannabis.

Controlled Substances Act | Video of Obama Speaking About Medical Marijuana on the Campaign Trail

Laurel Krause writes: Ongoing medical marijuana busts throughout Mendocino County have been arresting local residents daily. I was one of five busts made and charged with two felonies (cultivation and intent to sell/distribute) on February 20th, even though I had my doctor recommendation and was growing with the guidelines published at the Mendocino County website.

As I looked out my kitchen window I was shocked to see 25 Mendocino County Sheriffs/Deputies coming through my gate very quickly. The lead man, Sheriff Jonathan Martin, showed me a search warrant, handcuffed me and read me my rights. I was cooperative as they searched my home, my grow area on my five acres and seized all grow equipment related to 24 medical marijuana plants in full bloom. They chopped down the plants and hauled them away as I was being grilled and bullied in my home. This number is significant because if you google the Mendocino County Sheriff's webpage on medical marijuana guidelines, it says 25 plants. You are probably aware of the 'fuzziness' of these guidelines.

It gets worse. I was the #4 bust of 5 that day (Friday, Feb 20) and the guys let us know that they had five more for Saturday and five more on Sunday. Not individuals, but actual grows that might arrest multiple people. And most of the growers are women with kids (so now the children are possibly being taken away and bank accounts frozen). Real emotional and economic despair. Read more

Barry Cooper, a former Texas police officer with eight years of specialty in drug interdiction, first made waves when he released the film "Never Get Busted Again," a how-to guide for evading police drug seizures. Austin, Texas-based Cooper's latest project, 'KopBusters,' is not nearly so benign, and will likely generate for the former drug warrior an army of enemies in law enforcement.

His upcoming reality show, 'KopBusters,' a 'To Catch A Predator' style crusade against dirty officers, sparked an immediate response after RAW STORY covered a news brief of their first sting.

Cooper has now released footage from the initial episode of 'KopBusters,' in which the Odessa, TX police department raids a suspected marijuana grow house, only to discover they played right into the filmmaker's hands. As surveillance cameras roll, the police slowly figure out they've been had. Read More and Watch Video