Pubdate: Fri, 12 Dec 2008 Source: Xpress (CA, Edu) Copyright: 2008 San Francisco State University Contact: http://xpress.sfsu.edu Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4653 Author: Mani Dashtizadeh Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California) STILL MORE COFFEE THAN WEED In line with the unnatural addiction to the growth of grey hairs I have developed over the years since learning that stupidity tends to summon them from my skull, I continually wake up in the mornings and start my day by asking, "Could today provide me with stupidity more painful than yesterdays?" This addiction of mine to such repulsive material is surely a product of habit and without the assured instant gratification from information dispensed by groups such as The Office of National Drug Control Policy, I could never have aged so suddenly to look so wise. Here's one for the grey growing on my eyebrows: SF Gate relayed Tuesday morning a recent half-ass attempt to demonize California's Medical Marijuana program by an Office of National Drug Control Policy puppet blog that accuses California's implementation of this program to be breeding, "confusion, abuse and violence in neighborhoods and communities." "In downtown San Francisco alone, there are 71 marijuana dispensaries, compared to 66 Starbucks Coffee shops," Tuesday morning's post had been edited to state on the Drug Czar allied blog site, Pushingback.com-self proclaimed allies in "making the drug problem smaller." Despite the average Drug War Solder's impeccable reputation for truth, the SF Gate team decided to investigate the facts-just in case a mistake had been made and this claim of 71 dispensaries over 66 Starbucks coffee shops is complete and utter bullshit- and lo and behold, it is nothing but. Their investigation was of Pushingback.com's initial accusation that SF had 98 dispensaries vs. 71 Starbucks coffee shops. The authors of the post must not have been informed by their federal counterparts in the Intelligence community that despite the countless woes in the industry, reporters at the Chronicle still possess the ability to make phone calls. This is the part that catalyzes my grey hair growth process: the actual truth. The Chronicle discovered that San Francisco's Department of Public Health lists 24 pot clubs in the city and Spokespersons from Starbucks Coffee said they have 71 in San Francisco. This is the part that gives my grey hair that natural healthy glow: the face-palm moment. Pushback.com had part of their facts right at first-kind of-but in the mysterious genius of the assault team in the War on Drugs, they even managed to lie/confuse/make up (you figure it out) new data and obliterate what shred of accuracy they could have possibly cited as some sort of defense against complete incompetence. Their new tally is the current 71 vs. 66 that they still stand strongly by. Ok, to give them a little credit, the Starbucks Spokesperson told the Chronicle that their site only lists 66 coffee shops in the city-so apparently someone must have been asked to do a little fact checking- not too much though. The article revealed the comic attempts by the Fed to defend such a ridiculous claim and exposed the method of exaggeration found to prop it up, including double counting and what appeared to be pure assumption or what we call in the industry, "bullshit". However the Feds told the Chronicle that the, "information includes dispensaries that are unregulated yet easily findable through a Google search." By this point of the article I slapped myself for being partially responsible as a tax-payer inadvertently and unwillingly funding such social retardation: the dissemination of complete and utter bullshit as fact. For the life of me I cannot figure out how this sort of degenerate behavior is funded by the general public. The real issues within the gray areas that need to be highlighted and addressed will not and cannot be in this environment of deceit. There are legitimate legal questions surrounding the implementation of Medical Marijuana programs and our State Attorney General has issued guidelines to address many of them and surly will address more in time. Ridiculous claims like this are counterproductive to this process and do not "make the drug problem smaller." With the number of Americans still demonized for their stance on marijuana, I am going to go out on a federal limb here and assume that much of our country's population has at least one person they know that they would want to protect from the current consequences and/or burdens that accompany drug law violations-especially marijuana's. While I am on this "assumption" role (by borrowing apparently freely available federal immunity) I am going to also guess that the American people would rather make their decisions on how to go about this "marijuana problem" by analyzing the facts; especially if the effort is supposed to be done in the public's behalf. However I could be wrong and because of that I try not to assume but rather look for the facts and my gut is not alone here, I have 51% of the voters from some 13 states officially behind me when I say "let's cut the crap" and get to some serious discussion. Please, before I begin to resemble Anderson Cooper.