Proposition 47 is supposed to free up prison cells for "real" criminals by reducing drug possession to a misdemeanor offense. But what if those addicts also are the "real" criminals we fear? I know it's too soon to render a verdict on the initiative approved in November. I was among the 58.5% of California voters supporting the shift away from tough-on-crime laws and a prison-building boom and toward a more balanced criminal justice system. Proposition 47 isn't perfect, but it's a move in the right direction, I wrote back then. [continues 876 words]
Four states out of 50 may not sound like much of a mandate, but the success of marijuana initiatives on the ballot last week suggests the nation is inching toward legalizing the once-demon weed. California started the ball rolling 16 years ago with a medical marijuana law so broad, it makes a gram of weed cheaper and easier to get than a prescription for Vicodin. Now dozens of states allow adults access to marijuana as medicine, and four - Oregon, Alaska, Colorado and Washington - allow the drug to be sold outright, without even the pretense of illness. [continues 833 words]
Some Obey Orders to Shut Down While Others Wait and See It was a going-out-of-business sale that only a pothead could love. Cannabis-laced brownies, chocolate bars and peanut butter cups were half-price. Sleep-inducing indica buds sold out quickly. And discounted sativa was moving well among patients whose medical needs must have called for a buzz. I was on hand as Tampa Wellness packed up to shut down, disappointing customers who had trickled in last weekend from as far as Palmdale to get medical marijuana from this small dispensary in a Reseda strip mall. [continues 871 words]
Thorough Closure of Pot Dispensaries Leaves Legitimate Patients to Suffer Forget years of conflicting rules, hazy regulations, hard lines and soft bans. An LAPD narcotics squad has made an end-run around the city's fumbling efforts to regulate medical marijuana, shutting down every dispensary in its San Fernando Valley division in a three-year campaign whose success just might signal the end of legal pot sales in Los Angeles. The closure this week of Herbal Medicine Care in Chatsworth ended a string of Devonshire Division busts that netted 30 guns, $2 million in cash and nine kilos of cocaine, in addition to a ton of marijuana. [continues 1016 words]
Legalization Might Be a Bigger Issue for Boomers Than for Others Its name might be its strongest asset: The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act, a marijuana legalization effort that goes out of its way not to say the word "marijuana." I suspect its organizers learned something from the failure of predecessors -- like the Inalienable Rights Enforcement Initiative, a name that sounds like it was dreamed up by a bunch of guys passing around a bong. The Cannabis Act, which qualified last week for the statewide November ballot, ran its first radio ad Sunday: a former Los Angeles deputy sheriff explaining "why cops support Tax Cannabis 2010, the initiative to control and tax cannabis." [continues 791 words]
Is It Fair, or Even Reasonable, to Require People ... to Work the Fields in Exchange for Medication? She didn't know whether she'd have the nerve to speak. But Judy Bowen signed the list and took a seat amid the pot smokers and growers, the lawyers and doctors, the Rastafarians and AIDS patients crowded into the Los Angeles City Council hearing room. And when her turn came, she gripped her cane, made her way to the microphone and joined a chorus of would-be lawbreakers, there to fight a proposed ordinance that would ban the sale of medical marijuana in Los Angeles. [continues 923 words]
I remembered from my first go-round to bring necessities not listed in the college dormitory's move-in guide: plastic hangers, scented drawer liners, tools to un-jam a balky closet door. But what I didn't remember when my daughter and I arrived last week at San Francisco State is how difficult it can be to drop off your kid, leave campus and get on with your life. I'd been through the drill in 2003 with my oldest daughter. Then, we wandered wide-eyed through every reception and information session that Stanford offered. Two days later, we said tearful goodbyes and I headed home, confident that my child would be well cared for. [continues 720 words]
I don't know what the flak-jacketed federal agents expected to find during their commando-style raid Thursday on the Organica Collective, a pot dispensary with such a mellow vibe that its business card features a dove and a cross, and a promise to provide "the best quality, price and selection of medical marijuana on the Westside." Drug Enforcement Administration agents cut open a safe and hauled off boxes of records, a pair of flat screen monitors listing available varieties of weed, and the contents of an ATM. The place was left a mess, with receipts dumped on the floor and empty bottles and vials scattered around. [continues 649 words]
I've taken plenty of heat from readers about my column last week describing how easy it was for me to legally buy marijuana. Most chastised me for flushing my pot down the toilet before trying it, calling it a cowardly cop-out, a threat to the safety of the region's water supply and a missed opportunity to let others know what kind of pain relief marijuana actually provides. "Flushing good medicine down the toilet was a silly, wasteful gesture," e-mailed Michael Levitt, a 52-year-old who uses marijuana to treat his diabetes and high blood pressure and ran a dispensary in Canoga Park until the feds forced him to shut down last year. [continues 913 words]
The advertising flier left no doubt about its pitch: a giant marijuana leaf with a phone number that ended GOT KUSH. A friend's teenage daughter brought it home from last weekend's Earth Day celebration on the Santa Monica Pier. What else would I expect from a concert held on 4/20 -- a shorthand reference to smoking pot -- that featured reggae artist Ziggy Marley, son of Bob? "Have you or anyone else experienced an illness [for] which you believe marijuana could provide relief?" the flier read. "If you don't qualify for a recommendation, your visit is free." [continues 844 words]
He understands that to all but his closest friends, he might well be considered a "right-wing kook" who has gone over the edge. But tragedy, like politics, can make strange bedfellows. And yes, it really is Lyn Nofziger stumping these days for the medical use of marijuana. Nofziger, 76, spent most of his public life on the inside of Republican political circles, a conservative tough guy who served on the staff of President Nixon and as political director for President Reagan. [continues 868 words]
Ruling On Pot Strikes Home HE understands that to all but his closest friends, he might well be considered a "right-wing kook'' who has gone over the edge. But tragedy, like politics, can make strange bedfellows. And yes, it really is Lyn Nofziger stumping these days for the medical use of marijuana. Nofziger, 76, spent most his life on the inside of Republican political circles; a conservative tough guy who served on the staff of President Nixon and as political director for former President Reagan. [continues 789 words]
It was not, apparently, a hard call to make. It took the South Carolina jury only 15 minutes to decide that Regina McKnight belongs in prison, that she was guilty of killing the child in her womb by smoking crack cocaine during pregnancy. McKnight, 24, delivered a stillborn baby 35 weeks into her pregnancy. Doctors found cocaine in the systems of both mother and child, and McKnight was prosecuted for homicide. She was convicted and sentenced last week to 12 years in prison. [continues 1034 words]
HE UNDERSTANDS THAT TO all but his closest friends, he might well be considered a "right-wing kook" who has gone over the edge. But tragedy, like politics, can make strange bedfellows. And yes, it really is Lyn Nofziger stumping these days for the medical use of marijuana. Nofziger, 76, spent most his public life on the inside of Republican political circles; a conservative tough guy who served on the staff of former President Nixon and as political director for former President Reagan. [continues 884 words]
He understands that to all but his closest friends, he might well be considered a "right-wing kook" who has gone over the edge. But tragedy, like politics, can make strange bedfellows. And yes, it really is Lyn Nofziger stumping these days for the medical use of marijuana. Nofziger, 76, spent most his public life on the inside of Republican political circles; a conservative tough guy who served on the staff of former President Richard Nixon and as political director for former President Ronald Reagan. [continues 885 words]
