Don't Throw The Baby Out With The Bong Water To be honest, I was skeptical back in the days leading up to the passage of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act of 1996. I suspected the initiative's advocates were using marijuana's dubious medicinal powers to backdoor eventual carte blanch legalization. Turns out I was right—and wrong. There's no doubt that Prop. 215 paved the way for the two proposals for out-and-out legalization being considered today, activist Richard Lee's ballot initiative and the legislation introduced by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano. However, after reporting on the issue for more than a decade, I've come to the conclusion that far from being dubious, marijuana is very strong medicine, indeed. [continues 500 words]
When The Going Gets Tough, Politicians Turn To Pot, And They'Re Bound To Screw It Up Maybe it's just me, but whenever I find mainstream newspapers, cash-strapped politicians and libertarian think tanks all on the same page, I tend to get suspicious. Almost nothing good can come from this axis of weasels. Such is the case with the recent calls for legalizing marijuana, which is being billed as some sort of great awakening but in fact is nothing more than another attempt to pick the people's pocket. [continues 627 words]
Sac County Supes Come To Their Senses, Approve State's Medical-Marijuana ID Card For information on medial-marijuana laws, visit Americans for Safe Access at www.safeaccessnow.org. Last week, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved the use of the state's medical-marijuana ID card in the county. There's really no reason to thank them; the ID card was mandated by the state Legislature in 2003 and had already been approved by 42 out of the state's 59 counties, including Fresno, for Christ's sake. By not enacting it, the supervisors were thwarting the will of the electorate and the Legislature. Apparently, only the prospects of a lawsuit by medical-marijuana advocates convinced a majority of the supes to pass the ordinance 4-1. [continues 643 words]
Let's Get Really High on Change. Let's End the Drug War. How pleasant, to be alive as the old regime gasps its final breaths! No, no, no, nurse, the morphine drip won't be necessary. I'm enjoying every last painful second of it. Not that the Obama landslide marks the final end of the ancien regime. The president-elect remains deeply indebted to Wall Street aristocrats, as evidenced by his enthusiastic support for the taxpayer-funded $750 billion bailout of the very same banksters who crashed the world economy with their $500 trillion pyramid scheme. Still, to borrow Obama's primary campaign themes, we can hope his relentless move to the center this summer was simply a ruse to get elected and real progressive change is just around the corner. [continues 676 words]
What Is It About Medical Marijuana That Makes Everyone Act So Funny Marijuana can make people do funny things. Take journalists, for instance. For the past several weeks, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat has run a series of news stories and opinion pieces that have taken a decidedly negative slant on Santa Rosa's three medical marijuana dispensaries, more popularly known as cannabis clubs. In a March 17 column titled "Death to the Medical Cannabis Club," columnist Chris Smith wrote that "the needs of legitimate patients are overshadowed by the inevitable comings and goings of fakers, rip-offs, dealers and recreational pot-heads." [continues 3472 words]
What is it about medical marijuana that makes everyone act so funny? Marijuana can make people do funny things. Take journalists, for instance. For the past several weeks, the Santa Rosa Press Democrat has run a series of news stories and opinion pieces that have taken a decidedly negative slant on Santa Rosa's three medical marijuana dispensaries, more popularly known as cannabis clubs. In a March 17 column titled "Death to the Medical Cannabis Club," columnist Chris Smith wrote that "the needs of legitimate patients are overshadowed by the inevitable comings and goings of fakers, rip-offs, dealers and recreational pot-heads." [continues 3472 words]
A Sacramento Journalist Is Taken Into Custody By Police And Forced To Destroy Photos By An Over-Zealous National Guardsman. Apparently, the terrorists are indeed causing instability. The Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 sighed as its wheels kissed the Los Angeles International Airport tarmac. Flight 1206 out of Sacramento taxied to the gate, and my fellow passengers and I released our white-knuckle grips on the foam-covered armrests of our seats. No one's throat had been slit. We hadn't flown into a skyscraper. We'd made it, safely, much to our collective relief. [continues 4715 words]
