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From the editor
Raid Fear
F F F F F ear rages through our community after each raid ing authorities. The fear turns us against our own. It ra-
like a tsunami. Some day, when the stories are
diates out from the point of the raid to the outermost
told, there will be a name for this period of mari-reaches of the community. Isn’t the oldest tactic around
juana prohibition. For now, it is known by the raidingto divide and conquer?
and arresting of a stroke victim in Weed, a delivery man The point of the raids is to keep public opinion
in Santa Cruz, a young married couple in San Luis discounting the need for medical cannabis. The
Obispo County, dispensary operators in Hayward, and authority’s message is that the majority of cannabis pa-
a 60 year-old caretaker in San Francisco. There are oth- tients are healthy people loitering around public parks
ers more famous like Ed Rosenthal, Eddy Lepp, and our getting high and selling “weed” to teenagers. And we
own sweet Angel of Supreme Court fame. Each of theseall know better, yet even we are prey to the spin, It taps
is a medical cannabis patient just like you and me. Mostinto our social oppression as patients and a silent doubt
have been arrested because they watered some plants.rises. We think, “Yeah, they did something wrong.”
Then there are the nameless thousands already servingNever mind that the accused have their money and
in the wasteland of our prison system.medicine taken, bank accounts frozen and the numbers
Most raids and arrests, involving medical mari-of plants, pounds or whatever, inflated. They are left
juana are met with the news media publishing the au- with little but sore wrists from handcuffs and regular
thorities’ statements while the patients are being es- urine testing. Many, if not most, are under court order
corted to jail. Patients are not allowed a public voiceto not medicate regardless of their medical condition.
since most don’t have their lawyer handy during the Perhaps, it is always darkest before the dawn as
raid. Usually, no public statement is made on their be- the proverb goes since clearly the future is brighter.
half and if there is, it is after the fact. The accusations of However, the distance from here to there depends upon
the authorities are published, believed and ripples of the motivation and action of medical cannabis patients.
palatable fear surges through our community. We can leave others to endure the suffering of court pro-
We hear rumblings of gossip usually to the nega-ceedings, legal expenses, and incarceration on our be-
tive about our arrested peers. “They didn’t follow the half while we feel more pure, blessed or lucky for not be-
rules, but we do,” one dispensary operator says to the ing arrested. Or, we can set aside differences and suspi-
local news about his raided neighbor. “They were cions to unite for the common good. Compassion does
greedy,” says another. There is frequently a cry of de- not really mean free medicine. Compassion means, ac-
filement, “This is what gives medical marijuana a bad cording to my 1922 edition of The Concise Oxford
rap.” These conclusions are drawn on the word of the arrest- Dictionary—Pity, inclining one to spare or help.
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Raid Fear
F F F F F ear rages through our community after each raid ing authorities. The fear turns us against our own. It ra-
like a tsunami. Some day, when the stories are
diates out from the point of the raid to the outermost
told, there will be a name for this period of mari-reaches of the community. Isn’t the oldest tactic around
juana prohibition. For now, it is known by the raidingto divide and conquer?
and arresting of a stroke victim in Weed, a delivery man The point of the raids is to keep public opinion
in Santa Cruz, a young married couple in San Luis discounting the need for medical cannabis. The
Obispo County, dispensary operators in Hayward, and authority’s message is that the majority of cannabis pa-
a 60 year-old caretaker in San Francisco. There are oth- tients are healthy people loitering around public parks
ers more famous like Ed Rosenthal, Eddy Lepp, and our getting high and selling “weed” to teenagers. And we
own sweet Angel of Supreme Court fame. Each of theseall know better, yet even we are prey to the spin, It taps
is a medical cannabis patient just like you and me. Mostinto our social oppression as patients and a silent doubt
have been arrested because they watered some plants.rises. We think, “Yeah, they did something wrong.”
Then there are the nameless thousands already servingNever mind that the accused have their money and
in the wasteland of our prison system.medicine taken, bank accounts frozen and the numbers
Most raids and arrests, involving medical mari-of plants, pounds or whatever, inflated. They are left
juana are met with the news media publishing the au- with little but sore wrists from handcuffs and regular
thorities’ statements while the patients are being es- urine testing. Many, if not most, are under court order
corted to jail. Patients are not allowed a public voiceto not medicate regardless of their medical condition.
since most don’t have their lawyer handy during the Perhaps, it is always darkest before the dawn as
raid. Usually, no public statement is made on their be- the proverb goes since clearly the future is brighter.
half and if there is, it is after the fact. The accusations of However, the distance from here to there depends upon
the authorities are published, believed and ripples of the motivation and action of medical cannabis patients.
palatable fear surges through our community. We can leave others to endure the suffering of court pro-
We hear rumblings of gossip usually to the nega-ceedings, legal expenses, and incarceration on our be-
tive about our arrested peers. “They didn’t follow the half while we feel more pure, blessed or lucky for not be-
rules, but we do,” one dispensary operator says to the ing arrested. Or, we can set aside differences and suspi-
local news about his raided neighbor. “They were cions to unite for the common good. Compassion does
greedy,” says another. There is frequently a cry of de- not really mean free medicine. Compassion means, ac-
filement, “This is what gives medical marijuana a bad cording to my 1922 edition of The Concise Oxford
rap.” These conclusions are drawn on the word of the arrest- Dictionary—Pity, inclining one to spare or help.
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