Reefer Sadness in Claremont

Local politics are really just plain weird. Tony Krickl's story in the Claremont Courier is a classic example. The guy who was trying to open a pot shop in Claremont now admits he was doing it on purpose in order to get the city council to ban such establishments in Claremont. Why? So that he and his partner running the pot shop in Pomona wouldn't have any competition, that's why. After their relationship fell apart, he felt bad and confessed to the city council. There are many angles of interest here, from Mr. Kruse's repentance to the ridiculous current system of selling marijuana as "the medicine you can smoke."

As the LA Times' Political Muscle blog said recently, "the unspoken truth is many others are using the 10-year-old, randomly enforced California law to grow pot for sale to people who aren't sick. Just say it."Don't take the LAT' word for it: watch the video of a recent CBS2/KCAL9 undercover investigation which revealed that if you are over 18 and have $175, you can get a marijuana prescription no matter what. Undercover operatives who said they were suffering from dry skin, hair loss, and sore feet from high-heeled shoes were all given prescriptions. And check out the kid gleefully sharing his medicine on the street with all his—no doubt sick—friends.

Many of these doctors are simply pro-marijuana activists using the medical marijuana issue in order to advance the greater cause of legalization. For instance, one doctor/activist who handed out over 1,000 marijuana prescriptions also "grew pot in his backyard and distributed it for free." People are free to argue about legalization, but to my mind, hiding behind the medical marijuana issue is disingenuous.

There are undeniably lots of people out there in pain, some of whom use marijuana with self-reported success. Yet I do find it odd that on the occasions that I have been to medical marijuana centers, the vast majority of sick people going to buy weed looked like stereotypical potheads, mostly male, between the ages of 20-50.

Anyways, you have to feel for Mayor Yao and all the spam he must be getting these days. Never heard of the Poor Man's Bikini Beach Show on the independent KJLA? Funny, neither had I. The website for the show says that "$50 gets your ad on TV or the web," so someone shelled out the big bucks for this ad featuring Mayor Yao's email address:



No doubt this was to reach all the sick people—er, certain sort of male in the 20-50 year old range—watching the Poor Man's Bikini Show.