BARSTOW M.J. Somers said he wanted to live by the law -- and that's why he got his medical marijuana permit. I know it sounds weird, but I went for the weed license because I try to be a law-abiding citizen," said the 27-year-old Helendale resident. "I'm not a fiend for marijuana that gets it from the corner or the streets. I just need to smoke because I have health problems - -- and that's it." But Somers, who has a doctor-issued license to carry up to eight ounces to treat chronic what he calls "chronic muscle pains and seizures," said he felt like criminal when he was stopped by Barstow sheriff's deputies on Route 66 in early January. During the traffic stop, deputies confiscated close to an ounce of medical-grade marijuana Somer said he had just purchased from a clinic in Los Angeles. [continues 363 words]
"The war on drugs has failed." Those are the words of retired newsman Walter Cronkite from a March Huffington Post blog. Some argue that Cronkite single-handedly sparked the movement against the Vietnam War -- when he speaks, people listen. I did too. Twenty-four years ago, former President Ronald Reagan perpetuated an American convention of the Oval Office: proclaim a war on drugs. In his Oct. 14 yearly radio speech, the 40th president repeated words used by the successive administrations of Bush I, Willie I, Willie II and Bush II. The American government's encounter with drugs began before Reagan, and the first inklings of hostility date back to the '70s, with former President Richard Nixon's founding of the Drug Enforcement Agency. [continues 833 words]
