July 30, 2007

'Medical' Marijuana Raid: Los Angeles City Council Must Be Stoned

The Los Angeles City Council must be stoned. You can read that sentence in more than one way. Any would be correct.

The honorables of La La Land, embroiled in a debate over the most effective method for regulating the dispensing of “medical” marijuana within the fair city, experienced a major buzzkill, dude, when the federales raided 10 L.A. pot “clinics.”

Bogus.

The feds arrested five people and seized large quantities of pot and cash – even some marijuana brownies and cookies! The nerve of these people! “A little more for Santa Claus . . . A little more for Santa Claus . . .”

Officials of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency were criticized for their timing. You see, this very same day, the City Council was debating a resolution calling for an end to the crackdown on marijuana clinics. Now how are you supposed to focus on self-important resolutions when federal agents are always showing up busting people for dealing drugs?

Los Angeles is a little confused. A remedial review is in order:

The United States of America, which trumps California, has a law that says marijuana is illegal. You can’t have it. You can’t smoke it. You can’t distribute it.

California, which is trumped by the United States of America, passed a law saying yes you can. Of course, this was cloaked in the guise of supposed medical necessity. California decreed that you can buy and smoke pot if you need it to dull your pain. What pain? Whatever, man. All you have to do is find a doctor who will “examine” you, take your $200 for the office visit and sign a letter saying, yeah man, Arlo needs the weed.

Stop giggling. Put down the Doritos. There’s a small problem.

When California passed this law, someone forgot to tell the DEA that it was supposed to suddenly stop enforcing federal law, seeing as how California apparently forgot it is still part of the union. So when “marijuana clinics” started opening, DEA agents started showing up, shutting them down and arresting people.

One such person, brain cancer patient Angel Raich, challenged her arrest in federal court. In a 6-3 ruling in the case Gonzales v. Raich, the Supreme Court ruled that the federal government was indeed superior to any individual state, and could indeed raid and shut down marijuana clinics.

Whatever will these poor, suffering, sick people do? This is the cry of the pro-pot activists. Well, what they say they’re after is THC, the ingredient delivered via marijuana smoke that dulls the pain. Problem solved. It is available in a legal, prescribed pill form under the name Marinol. It’s approved by the FDA, unlike marijuana, which is not approved for many reasons, one of which is that no medication can be administered effectively, and in a correct measured dose, by being smoked.

No one advocating the availability of pot was being compassionate to Angel Raich. They were using her case to try to make it easier for themselves to get high and get away with it.

It is not the slightest bit ironic that this incident occurred the same week more research came out connecting marijuana use with psychosis. The connection is no surprise for anyone who has much contact with the typical American teenager today – the one who can hardly get moving in the morning, can hardly function at school and can hardly get through an evening without smoking pot.

Where are these kids getting the idea that smoking pot is a good idea? Maybe they’re getting it from the Los Angeles City Council, which is apparently such a bunch of stoners they can’t even figure out that federal laws trump their own by a factor of two.

No one needs to smoke marijuana for any reason. The “pain relief” argument is such a fraud, given the availability of safe and legal alternatives, its proliferation can only be explained by the obvious fact that those making the argument know it is bogus – and don’t care.

Councilman Dennis Zine complained that the DEA agents were “bullies” and wrote a letter to DEA administrator Karen Tandy asking that the raids be stopped.

Sorry, dude. Better hide your stash. It won’t be enough to fix a city as screwed up as Los Angeles, but the federales know the difference between serious law and absurd council resolutions. Thank God someone has a clear head.