Denise Cullen's journey from mother, to burying her only child before his 28th birthday, to activist is one that too many parents have had to take during the worst drug epidemic in this nation's history. Most parents who lose a child collapse under the weight of trying to stem the tide of prescription opioids. But even after five years of battling what the Centers for Disease Control calls an ever-more deadly killer, Cullen and several other mothers and fathers in Orange County haven't given up - and now they are making dents in the epidemic. [continues 1111 words]
There are times when our convictions take us places we never wanted to go. With the smell of marijuana wafting into the Anaheim Convention Center during last year's Know Your Rights Expo, an unlikely speaker walks past bongs, pipes and buxom women dressed as nurses. Nearly everyone in the crowd wears T-shirts and jeans. The "nurses" hawk bargain-basement prices for medicinal marijuana cards. The speaker, retired Superior Court Judge Jim Gray wears a blue blazer, light slacks and a button-down shirt as he takes the stage. He is there to advocate legalizing marijuana, or as he puts it, "ending prohibition on illicit drugs." [continues 935 words]
There's a marijuana generation gap. If you're over 30, there's a good chance that if you inhale, you hide it. Under 30? You probably don't bother with the secrecy, unless you're talking to the boss. Many young adults I interview casually mention smoking pot the same way boomers talk about relaxing with a few beers. As in, "We went to the beach, smoked some weed." The weird thing? I'm old enough to be their dad. [continues 870 words]
There is something very weird about asking directions to the marijuana expo at the Anaheim Convention Center. You feel like a young rebel. You wonder if the security guards think you're high. And you fear someone's going to get busted. Paranoid? Hardly. Marijuana's illegal and the smell of pot is in the air. I'm not kidding. It's Saturday afternoon and a dozen or so people some in wheelchairs, some with dreadlocks are smoking weed. Outside. In public. In Anaheim. Near Disneyland. [continues 869 words]
Sitting across the table, at a Starbucks in San Clemente, Kandice Hawes is all business in black Capri pants, a fashionable top and a demure gray sweater. "Of course I smoke pot," she says in a loud voice that expresses both surprise and amusement at the question. Holy smoke! I look around, worried someone might hear. After all, I lived through Nancy Reagan's America when smoking marijuana was pretty much the same as shooting heroin, when all drugs were lumped together under the "Just Say No" campaign. [continues 903 words]
In response to "Don't worry about my marijuana tea" (Oct. 22, Letters): Marijuana tea is illegal. Federal law, thankfully, supersedes California's Proposition 215, a law that was bought and paid for by special interests. California voters were duped by legalizers wanting to smoke pot without consequence. Instead of drinking marijuana tea, I would like to see drug legalization advocates drink some truth serum. Californians have been had! David Whiting Turlock [end]
