It's been an interesting year for users of marijuana, as we've watched news media, politicians, law enforcement and fellow community members trot out their usual stale condemnations of marijuana based on the same old ignorance, prejudice and hypocrisy.

I say ignorance because it's disappointingly clear that most folks don't know even the basic facts about marijuana, and they won't bother to lift a finger to find out the facts. The idea that anything said by politicians or law enforcement officers or news outlets must be the unvarnished truth has been proven time and again throughout human history to be a bad idea. Yet the information that most community members use to judge marijuana primarily comes from those same often-unreliable or biased sources.

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What an amazing experience we had on Saturday at the Medical Marijuana School in Grass Valley! The most transformative moment for me was seeing our district attorney, Mike Ferguson, receive standing ovations (not once, but twice!) from a crowd of folks often perceived as being at war with law enforcement. This happened because our community thrives on the spirit of cooperation. While other counties are busy mounting recalls of their DAs, we know that the faster we work together on this, the more the community stands to gain.

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