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

On May 22nd in Los Angeles, the California Court of Appeals ruled that the state limits on medical marijuana possession and cultivation that were established under state law SB 420 are unconstitutional. In the case People v. Patrick Kelly, the court overturned the defendant's conviction for possessing 12 ounces of dried marijuana plants on the grounds that the prosecutor had improperly argued that the defendant was guilty because he possessed more than the 8-ounce limit established in Health & Safety Code Section 11362.77 and did not have a doctor's recommendation that authorized more. That section also says that counties and cities can enact medical marijuana guidelines that allow patients or caregivers to exceed the state limits.

In its 3-0 decision, the court ruled: "The prosecutor's argument was improper... because the CUA [Compassionate Use Act] can only be amended with voters' approval. Voters, however, did not approve the eight-ounce limit and other caps in section 11362.77; hence, section 11362.77 unconstitutionally amends the CUA." The decision could be appealed to the Supreme Court. Prop. 215 advocates such as California NORML have long believed that the SB 420 limits are unconstitutional. Statement from California NORML

Text of Court of Appeals decision in People v. Patrick Kelly | Text of SB 420 | Text of Proposition 215

Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) and a small bi-partisan coalition of Members of Congress introduced H.R. 5842, the Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act in April. The legislation will help protect individuals who use or provide medical cannabis in accordance with their state law.

If it is passed, this legislation would, among other things, reschedule marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule II drug according the Controlled Substances Act and provide clearer protections for qualified patients, their caregivers, and safe-access sites authorized by state or local law. Such bills have been introduced in the past, but had not been passed into law. Americans for Safe Access has a Patient Protection Act page on its website from which people can write to their U.S. Representative to support this piece of legislation.

HR 5842: Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act | ASA's announcement about contacting Congresspeople | Controlled Substances Act