Compassionate conservatism it's not. In what looks like a made-for-TV tragedy, Pearlie Rucker may be on the street for the sins of her child. The Supreme Court decided unanimously Tuesday to uphold a law used to boot the 64-year-old resident from her Oakland housing project after her mentally disabled daughter was found with cocaine a quarter-mile away from the house. Three other public housing residents, Willie Lee, Barbara Hill and Herman Walker, also got caught in a similar mix of bad luck and bureaucracy. As an upshot, the four low-income senior citizens are inching ever closer to homelessness. [continues 688 words]
LETTER writer Bob Dougherty's contention that locking up every drug user would end drug trafficking has one fatal flaw (The Examiner, March 21). Who will pay the hundreds of billions of dollars for police, courts and prisons to lock up the druggies? It costs around $30,000 per year to incarcerate each prisoner and California already spends more than $1,022,465,000 every year to incarcerate the 45,455 drug offenders doing time. If Mr. Dougherty's idea is put into practice, we'll have to imprison hundreds of thousands of drug users who are now gainfully employed. If only 200,000 drug users (a low estimate) were jailed the taxpayer burden would increase by over $7 million per year. Besides the considerable tax hike necessary to fund this total war on drugs, such enormous prison expenses would require severe cuts in every other area of government service. Schools would be bankrupted, public hospitals would be closed and genuine police protection would evaporate. Redford Givens The City [end]
Special To The Examiner THE U.S. CONGRESS has declared 2001-2010 the Decade of Pain Control and Research. It is a worthy and overdue focus, as pain control has been a neglected part of health care for many years. Unfortunately and paradoxically, however, another arm of our federal government is proposing to make pain relief harder to obtain. And some major medical organizations are feeling forced into taking legal action against our own attorney general. In 1997, voters in the state of Oregon legalized "physician-assisted dying." Each year since then, a couple dozen patients per year have opted to exercise this last resort. [continues 529 words]
MICHAEL Moore, (Q&A, The Examiner, March 18) the obviously self- loathing author of the book "Stupid White Men," wants to know why President Bush gave $43 million to the Taliban last year. The money did not go to the Taliban, it went to the World Food Program and other NGOs as aid for Afghan farmers, to encourage them to stop growing opium poppies. This information is easily found, and one has to wonder why this lie continues to be disseminated. Maybe it has something to do with an agenda. Minnie Hanover The City [end]
UNTIL the buyers of illegal narcotics are consistently arrested, successfully prosecuted and publicly exposed, sales will continue to proliferate ("Have drugs, will travel," The Examiner, March 19). The dealers would not be here if there were not an abundance of eager customers. The police, district attorney and courts must do a better job to clear up this mess. A good place to start is with the ultimate drug consumer. If there is no demand, the supply will evaporate. Bob Dougherty The City [end]
ARTICLES such as "Have drugs, will travel" may be shocking to some, but are no surprise to San Francisco Mission district residents, which I used to be (The Examiner, March 19). Recently leaving the Mission after living there two years, the reason I relocated was the drugs, crime and resulting filth around the 16th Street BART station two blocks from my old apartment. It's so easy to see that the neighborhood "commerce" as I call it, is totally focused around the BART station, but also trickling out around the neighboring streets and alleys. The article highlights some finger-pointing from those involved with this problem, but I think the solution is simple: Efforts to conquer the problem from the city of San Francisco like more law enforcement and some effort from the community. [continues 87 words]
Last Of Two Parts. San Francisco has the lowest bails in the Bay Area -- a legal soft spot that out-of-town drug dealers cite as an incentive to do business here. An Examiner review of bail schedules shows that for most suspected drug dealers, it is easier to get out of jail while awaiting trial in The City than in any of the four nearest counties. Between arrest and sentencing, many dealers are found to be selling drugs again. A few have been caught making deals on the street within minutes of release from preliminary hearings at the Hall of Justice. [continues 1548 words]
First In A Two-Part Series On Commuter Crime. Office workers are not the only businesspeople to make the daily trek into San Francisco. Drug dealers can hop on a bus or BART the same as anyone else, and are doing it every day. An Examiner analysis of months of police records bears out what police and neighborhood activists long have suspected: Street-level pushers in downtown San Francisco are largely from out of town, many hailing from Oakland and Richmond. [continues 2444 words]
When many professionals retire, they lace up their golf shoes and head for the links. Some retired judges in San Francisco, however, seemingly spend their newfound freedom releasing convicted criminals from the clinker. At least that seems to be the case with retired Superior Court Judge Herbert Donaldson, who serves two days a week here as a visiting judge. Donaldson is the judge who recently turned loose on our streets a former rookie cop -- accused of raping two teenage prostitutes at gunpoint -- after dropping his bail to $250,000 from $1 million. Police, victims, activists and prosecutor Elliot Beckelman condemned the decision. [continues 766 words]
Hemp can't get you high. Nevertheless, while The City embraces hemp, the Drug Enforcement Administration is trying to ban it. Displayed outside The Body Shop's downtown store, advertisements with drawings of marijuana-shaped leaves tout hemp as the best moisturizer in the world. Another sign reads, "Hemp is hope, not dope." Health food stores stock cereals, bread, ice cream and oils containing hemp. An acre of hemp produces four times as much paper as an acre of timber, said Supervisor Mark Leno. [continues 456 words]
Police officers working the beat along Sixth Street have this stern message for drug dealers: It will be costly to do business here. The amount of drug-related arrests for the past six months back up the message. During that period, police made an average of 375 drug busts per month along the troubled corridor. "It's gotten to the point where some of the brighter drug dealers are now staying away from Sixth Street," Lt. Mark Swendsen said. "The heat is on year-round throughout this entire city. We've got a bunch of captains who are on crime like sharks on wounded fish." [continues 654 words]
I was disturbed by "Zero tolerance eviction law argued before high court" (The Examiner, Feb. 20), and the eviction of four Oakland tenants. The article reports the 1998 policy encourages tenants to intervene with their drug-using relatives; failure to do so results in eviction, and law abiding citizen move-ins. In the article, the AARP reported, "More than 1.7 million families headed by people over 61 live in government-subsidized housing." The government should consider the ramifications when entire families are penalized for the actions of one member. The increase in punitive action against entire families will only exacerbate social problems; homelessness, displacement of the elderly, school dropouts, and a possible increase of children in foster care. Does the federal government really want to be implicated in this possible outcome? Vivian Ross, The City [end]
COMING SOON TO your neighborhood, courtesy of Supervisor Chris Daly: junkies, crack fiends, hopheads and speed freaks. Sitting in his chair as a member of the Board of Supervisors' Finance Committee, Daly said on Wednesday that he's looking forward to siting more drug rehabilitation programs in various locations throughout the city -- "even in neighborhoods that don't want them" -- while his colleagues on the committee, Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Sophie Maxwell, smiled and nodded in agreement. Of course, the supervisors didn't say exactly which neighborhoods would be getting rehab clinics whether they want them or not, but it's worth noting that both Daly and Peskin were elected on a platform of neighborhood preservation. Indeed, both have taken great pains to sanctify the "neighborhood voice" in the civic discourse, placing it above virtually all other considerations. Which begs some obvious questions: how, exactly, does locating drug rehab clinics in residential neighborhoods constitute the preservation of San Francisco's neighborhoods? And, perhaps more importantly, what's a sanctimonious supervisor to do when the neighborhood voice isn't telling you what you want to hear? [continues 242 words]
THE DEA claims that its "job is to enforce the federal drug statutes and we're committed to doing that." ("Pot activists claim innocence," The Examiner, March 5) But what America's lunatic drug crusaders never say is how utterly ridiculous the penalties for "marijuana crimes" are. According to the Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2000, the average prison term served for violent offenses of all kinds is nine years. The average forcible rape sentence is 10 years. Assault averages six years and a burglar does about five years. [continues 65 words]
Two Oakland medical marijuana activists claimed innocence to a daunting series of charges leveled at them Monday in San Francisco Federal Court. Edward Rosenthal, 57, and James Halloran, 61, were two of four people caught in a marijuana sweep last month by the Drug Enforcement Administration. DEA officials said more than 8,000 plants and smaller "clones" were seized during the raid -- which coincided with a speech being given that night by DEA Chief Asa Hutchinson. Halloran's attorney, Dennis Roberts, said the timing certainly looked suspicious. Hutchinson, for his part, has denied any nexus to the events, calling it a coincidence. [continues 419 words]
SANTA CRUZ -- School officials are considering whether to snuff out a 13-year-old girls' science project that examines medical uses for marijuana. The junior high school student was allowed to present her report to classmates Thursday, but afterward school officials confiscated her props, including a marijuana-laced muffin and a spray bottle of pot- steeped rubbing alcohol. The girl's father, Joe Morris, said Mission Hill Junior High officials gave initial clearance for the project and should have said something earlier if they objected. [continues 217 words]
Many readers felt moved to write about the recent fed raids on pot shelters in The City and the Bay Area. One G.P., a native, offers a sort of backhanded compliment: "The Bush regime is scaring a lot of Americans, perhaps it will wake them up and they will start voting more." From North Beach beat John Raymond: "The feds are going up in smoke/their local raids a tacky joke;/the message San Francisco got--/the DEA has gone to pot." [continues 407 words]
Don't you understand that by publishing uncritical news stories such as "State's meth war goes to war" (The Examiner, Feb. 7), you are supporting the government's brutal drug-war pogrom, designed to distract our attention from more important issues. Please, don't insult my intelligence by insisting the drug war is there to protect users from harmful drugs. First, banning a drug harms users (adulterated drugs and jail time) and non-users (murder and mayhem on our streets) much more than if the drug were freely and legally available. Second, if that were the reason, why didn't we ban alcohol and tobacco too? Alan Randell, Victoria, BC [end]
THE raids that have been taking place of California's medicinal pot clubs is nothing short of terror attacks ("Feds vs. S.F. on Pot," The Examiner, Feb. 13.). While the FBI is doing all it can to scare us into looking over our shoulders for signs of terrorism, the DEA is acting out these scare tactics on patients in this state. By attempting to close the clubs, the Bush administration is literally pushing medicinal marijuana users back into the streets to get the medicine they need. [continues 103 words]
I have a friend who has suffered from fibromyalgia for years. There is no "cure" for fibromyalgia, so she either has to endure the incredible pain that it causes, or seek some kind of temporary medical relief. She does not want to become reliant on pharmaceutical drugs, not caring for their effect on her thought processes nor the expense of legal narcotics. So every now and then, when things get a little too unbearable, she will take a puff of pot. [continues 89 words]
The Event Was Loaded -- With Politics. The Drug Enforcement Agency raided at least two Bay Area medical marijuana clubs Tuesday morning -- one of them operating a mere three blocks from where DEA chief Asa Hutchinson spoke Tueday night. All told, agents seized about 8,300 plants, including seedling plants known as clones, DEA spokesman Richard Myer said. A .22 handgun and a shotgun belonging to one of those arrested also were confiscated. DEA agents arrested three men in two cases. A fourth man, Kenneth Hayes, a former executive director of the San Francisco pot club CHAMP, is in custody in Vancouver, B.C. His attorney, Bill Panzer, said Hayes has petitioned the Canadian government for political refugee status. [continues 1212 words]
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- The war against methamphetamine will hit the Central Valley airways soon in messages intended to inform the public and enlist their help. Gov. Gray Davis said the state needs to develop zero tolerance for meth production as he announced the series of public service announcements Wednesday. "Money by itself is not going to win the battle of methamphetamine," Davis said. "We need to get more information to the general public and more information from the general public." The television spots, which will start airing this month in Kern, Fresno, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tulare counties, seek to educate people about the dangers of meth and how to help police identify meth labs and distributors. The ads ask tipsters to call a toll-free number, 1-866-METH-LAB. [continues 151 words]
SISTER Bernie Galvin, of Religious Witness with Homeless People, objects to using mostly vouchers, instead of cash, in providing welfare payments to the homeless ("Newsom: No More Homeless Drug Money," The Examiner, Feb. 6). No surprise there. But the remarkable thing is her cavalier attitude toward drug addiction. Says Galvin: "People living lives of misery can easily fall into seeking temporary relief." There's nothing temporary or relief-giving about being a heroin addict. To pretend otherwise is to become a codependent, adding momentum to the addiction. Sad to say, that's what many of the city's so-called homeless advocates have become, codependents. Their shortsightedness is hurting both addicts and the larger community. Arthur Evans, The City [end]
Fresh from trips to Chicago and New York, Supervisor Gavin Newsom has returned with a message for The City's homeless: The buck stops here -- literally. He plans to introduce legislation Thursday examining whether The City should be so generous in handing out free checks to the needy. Compared to other counties, San Francisco is much too easy. The Catch-22 is that $343 isn't enough to afford housing, Newsom said, yet it's enough to feed other needs -- primarily substance addictions. [continues 630 words]
Treatment on demand -- a city policy to treat addicts who ask for help -- seems to be failing a segment of San Francisco's gay male population, with a six-month waiting list to treat speed addiction. And that lack of treatment could be spreading more than drug dependence. The correlation between speed use and HIV transmission has providers worried, as HIV-negative men are being sent back to the streets, where drug-induced, unsafe sex is likely to turn them HIV positive. [continues 431 words]
THE City's failure to implement its goal of drug treatment on demand has a ripple effect, creating problems for HIV prevention and rehabilitation of the homeless. The Examiner reported on Monday that San Francisco leads the nation in methamphetamine addiction. And meth use in the late-night gay party scene is particularly high, 64 percent in the preliminary findings of one Department of Public Health study. Researchers say the use of speed helps spread HIV, the virus that causes AIDS -- not always through contaminated needles. They found that behavioral changes in sex were the big culprit. The drug is an incredible aphrodisiac that encourages reckless and unprotected sex. It also allows people to have sex for up to 14 hours without a break, increasing exposure to sexually transmitted diseases. [continues 290 words]
Gerald Uelman, a professor of law at Santa Clara University, argued the Oakland Cannabis Buyers Cooperative's case before the U.S. Supreme Court in November. He was part of O.J. Simpson's criminal-defense team. Uelman will speak Tuesday in San Jose at Le Petit Trianon at 7:30 p.m. Dan Evans: What did you do with the O.J. Simpson case? What was your role? Gerald Uelman: My role was arguing the admissibility of the evidence. We have extensive pretrial motions, challenging the searches, the police going over the wall and finding the bloody glove, and all of that. The admissibility of prior acts of domestic violence, they were all key issues in the case. [continues 933 words]
I'm sick of reading comments from marijuana users, such as letter writer Chris Kindig, who are in such a hurry to see users and addicts of other drugs hauled off to the stalag as long as they are left alone ("Focus on real crime and leave pot users alone," Examiner letters, Dec. 27). Addiction is a serious medical issue and addicts are no more deserving of the cage than are medical-marijuana users. The "Take them but leave me alone!" whining converts no prohibition zealots and feeds into their ad hominem arguments. Addicts need medical maintenance just as much as anyone needs medical marijuana and, I submit, the need is far more acute. Dave Michon Eau Claire, Wis. [end]
IT is clear that anti-drug types want no exceptions made for the use of drugs in San Francisco, even marijuana. The benefits of using marijuana are many. They include the relief of pain, nausea, glaucoma, movement disorders and migraines, and it even stimulates appetite for people suffering with HIV. The same can definitely not be said for users of heroin or cocaine. I understand concerns about marijuana being a gateway drug to heroin or cocaine, but this is only a myth to keep kids away from drugs. People who are recreational users or dependent on marijuana for medical reasons do not progress to other drugs. There are millions of people across the globe, from schoolteachers to lawyers, who partake in marijuana and nothing more. [continues 96 words]
WHEN he ran for president, George W. Bush told one campaign audience after another the federal government is too big and too active. He even suggested once that states -- not the feds -- should decide whether to legalize marijuana. Bush's attorney general, John Ashcroft, was an even more adamant advocate of states' rights during his years in the Senate, advocating among other things for states to make their own voting rights laws. This talk seemed academic at the time. But no longer, as medical marijuana patients around California prepare for an expected spate of raids in addition to two conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration in October. [continues 616 words]
AS of Feb. 6, it will be illegal to sell or import products containing hemp, under a new rule of the DEA. The hemp-containing foods being banned contain traces of THC, the main active ingredient of marijuana. The products that are affected include some cheeses, coffees, energy drinks, beers, ice creams, snack bars, salad oils, sodas and some others. Manufacturers say there is no measurable THC content in these foods under tests available when Congress passed the Controlled Substances Act. The hemp seeds are thought to be a good source of protein and essential fatty acids not found in other foods. [continues 101 words]
CONGRATULATIONS to Mark Leno for his resolution requesting local officials not to cooperate with federal drug warriors prosecuting medicinal marijuana users ("Supes to feds: Pot OK in The City," The Examiner, Nov. 27). As another candidate for state Assembly in District 13, I now feel a little bit better about the possibility that he will win. A similar state-wide proposal, requiring California district attorneys to abide by Proposition 215, and denying cooperation to federal officials, is a key part of my Libertarian platform for office, "legalize love, legalize health, legalize work," along with a marriage equality act and a repeal of the state income tax. Chris Maden Libertarian candidate for state Assembly, District 13 The City [end]
THE author of the letter calling marijuana a "gateway" drug is living in a fool's paradise, although if it were she who was battling cancer or AIDS, this paradise would quickly turn into hell without the relief cannabis provides ("Marijuana still a gateway drug," Examiner letters, Nov. 29). I wish that she and others like her who know nothing about marijuana would first spend an hour with a medical marijuana patient before casting judgment. Ray Carlson, Redwood City [end]
THREE huge cheers to the government of San Francisco for standing up to The Ayatollah Ashcroft and his anti-drug thug minions at the DEA. These unfortunates are scared to death that if they lose the great bogey man that is marijuana, they could well lose their precious jobs. John McKee Columbia Falls, Mont. [end]
Letter writer Nicole Dotto has been deceived by "Reefer Madness" propaganda ("Marijuana still gateway drug," Examiner letters, Nov. 29). The real-world example of legal marijuana in the Netherlands shows that hard drug use -- heroin and cocaine addiction -- declined substantially after the Dutch made marijuana available for adult use in the 1970s. Since liberalizing their marijuana laws, the average age of opiate addicts in the Netherlands rose from 26.8 years in 1978 to 37 years in 1998. The number of opiate addicts in Amsterdam under 22 years of age has fallen from 14.4 percent in 1981 to 1.2 percent in 1998. [continues 145 words]
LETTER writer Nicole Dotto claims that marijuana use is "inarguably" a stepping stone to abuse of harder drugs. Funny, but dozens of government studies have seen the issue differently. The 1972 Shafer Commission report, commissioned by Richard Nixon, stated that "the use of marijuana does not lead to morphine or cocaine or heroin addiction." In 1989, a DEA administrative law judge called marijuana "one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man." A 1999 report to the U.S. government by the Institutes of Medicine reached similar conclusions about the health and social impact of marijuana use. In different ways, all called for major reform of marijuana laws. [continues 207 words]
If you're sick, say local officials, smoke pot. Smoke pot, say the feds, and we'll bust you. While the war in Afghanistan absorbs most of the public's attention, this smaller, yet volatile, conflict over medicinal cannabis continues to rage in California. San Francisco Supervisor Mark Leno will deliver the latest lick today when he requests that local authorities not cooperate with federal drug enforcement officials. "It's important for us to communicate to (federal authorities), 'Don't waste your time here,'" Leno said Monday in an interview. "In the words of our district attorney, 'Hands off.' " [continues 585 words]
I am writing in response to your medical marijuana article ("Supes to feds: Pot OK in The City," The Examiner, Nov. 27). Under no circumstances should pot be OK to smoke, whether for medicinal purposes or leisure. The effects needed from marijuana for patients can be derived from a pill that is made from the same substance. Local authorities are below federal drug enforcement officials and therefore have no place ignoring the federal law. I agree that heroin and cocaine are a bigger priority for arrests and charges, however, the use of marijuana is inarguably a step toward these hard-core drugs. Nicole Dotto The City [end]
THE author of a letter, Desmond Call, says that addicts deserve misfortune because their disposition is a "matter of choice" ("Addicts deserve their lot," Examiner letters, Nov. 19). I submit that the addict has been robbed of true choice by the very people who wash their hands of these deaths. A true choice would involve legal abstinence and legal use. The addict is also robbed of the choice of choosing a regulated product with an identifiable dosage. This causes most deaths. The choice of legal drugs also eliminates the involvement in property crimes and prostitution. [continues 80 words]
THE notion that heroin is a naturally lethal drug is a great fiction promoted by America's lunatic anti-drug crusaders. Overdoses were virtually unheard before drug prohibition, when addicts used cheap, pure, legal Bayer Heroin instead of the expensive toxic bootleg potions prohibition puts on the streets. When drugs were legal, addicts held regular employment, raised decent families and were indistinguishable from their teetotaling neighbors. The sad state of drug addicts nowadays is the direct result of 87 years of drug prohibition, not the effects of opiates themselves, which are quite safe when regulated for purity and potency. Proof of the benign nature of heroin comes from Switzerland, where addicts are provided with clinically pure heroin at low cost. [continues 132 words]
SHAME on you for publishing your editorial on the next wave of Afghan heroin ("Heroin: Taliban's chemical warfare," Examiner view, Nov. 18). This editorial was not only uninformed, it was practically nonsensical. The Taliban "unleashing" new shipments of heroin as chemical warfare? Give me a break. The vast majority of Afghan opiates go to Europe. The United States' supply mostly comes from South American countries. But more importantly, the production of opiates is not a staged event. It's an ongoing attempt by poor farmers in third-world countries to grow a crop that will feed their families. [continues 59 words]
An increase in enforcement on Sixth Street led to a substantial decrease in violence in October along the crime corridor. Stepped up arrests for misdemeanor drug offenses and petty crimes are the reason, said Lt. Mark Swendsen, second in command at Southern Station, which patrols the troubled mid-Market stretch. Swendsen was citing the Police Department's most recent statistics, which saw a 20 percent decrease in homicide, rape, auto theft, burglary and robbery as compared to last year. "All of the sudden, people realize that we're here and we're not putting up with anything anymore," Swendsen said. "Drug dealers, who used to come in from Oakland, now know the heat is on and stay home." [continues 435 words]
I weary of the bleeding hearts and do-gooders who try to elicit sympathy for those who have voluntarily become addicts ("The new heroin," The Examiner, Nov. 16). That behavior was a matter of choice. At the risk of sounding callous, I have no sympathy whatever for them. If more of the walking dead die because they stick a needle in their body and fill it with poison, that is the natural result of their life choice. Spend your time, effort and money on someone who deserves to be helped. Desmond Call Edmonds, Wash. [end]
THE terrorist attack on the United States has entered its third and possibly most deadly phase. Taliban leaders have unleashed a store of opium from Afghanistan, and the State Department expects it to arrive here in the form of a new, purer form of heroin. The heroin isn't just a way to get money for terrorism. It is terrorism. We should strike back with everything we've got. On a national level that means interdiction and prosecution. On a local level it means prevention and treatment. [continues 363 words]
San Francisco drug experts fear that a new, deadly wave of Afghan heroin believed to be headed for The City could hold devastating consequences for addicts here. The U.S. State Department last month reported that the Taliban is selling off vast quantities of potent opium and that the resulting pure strain of heroin is headed for American cities. The massive stockpile of narcotics could hit San Francisco late this winter or next spring. If it does, it could spell disaster for a city already in the throes of a heroin epidemic. [continues 893 words]
LETTER writer William Horton shows his ignorance by equating criminals with medical marijuana patients ("Sanctuary Politics Criminal," Examiner letters, Nov. 8). Views such as this are the reason it is so important for District Attorney Terence Hallinan and Supervisor Mark Leno to stand up against federal intrusion. I have no opinion on the other criminal matters in San Francisco mentioned in the letter, but they have nothing to do with medical marijuana patients. In this case, Leno and Hallinan are right to stand up for patients' rights, whereas Horton is wrong to try to characterize this as being somehow "soft on crime." He sounds entirely too much like Republican congressmen. Ray Carlson Redwood City [end]
RE: your article on District Attorney Terence Hallinan's press conference about the DEA raiding physicians who recommend marijuana ("Hallinan's pot shots at feds," The Examiner, Nov. 6) Hallinan obeys and enforces California's laws, and he expects everyone else in his city to do the same. Even the DEA. He and Supervisor Mark Leno made it clear the DEA is not welcome here. Dr. Marion (Mollie) Fry wrote my recommendation and now the DEA has taken my personal medical records along with those of nearly 5,000 other California patients. [continues 143 words]
SOME "Democrat" Sen. Feinstein is. She voted for John Ashcroft as attorney general, Asa Hutchinson as DEA director, and now John Walters as drug czar. They are the three most rabid Cabinet nominees that the Republicans could find. And predictably, Ashcroft is now going after the Oregon assisted suicide law and is savaging the medicinal marijuana dispensaries in Sen. Feinstein's very own state, a state where medicinal marijuana is legal. Where was her voice when the DEA raided the dispensaries? Where will her voice be when the DEA raids the San Francisco medicinal marijuana dispensaries? Why on earth does she not even acknowledge these events and their impact on her very own state? [continues 204 words]
I wish to disagree with one particular statement made in your medical marijuana editorial ("Compassionate liberalism on pot," Examiner view, Nov. 7). It says that if the federal government tries to close the clubs, "it will have ended an experiment California undertook in 1996 with the passage of Prop. 215, the Compassionate Use Act." Proposition 215 is the law because it was the will of the voters of California. It was not and never will be "an experiment." On the other hand, if the federal government ever successfully shuts down the cannabis clubs, the experiment that will end is known as "democracy." [continues 353 words]
