Smoke On The Water

A bit of harumphing and embarrassed throat-clearing at The San Francisco Chronicle this morning as their long-time Outdoors/Hiking writer has been arrested for operating a marijuana farm: Chronicle Outdoors Writer Arrested In Pot Case

Chronicle outdoors writer Tom Stienstra and his wife were arrested at their Northern California home on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale, and later released with no charges filed pending an investigation, officials said.

Siskiyou County sheriff's spokeswoman Susan Gravenkamp said deputies found "a sophisticated marijuana cultivation operation in the barn" at Stienstra's home in Weed, a small town 30 miles south of Yreka, when they searched it March 25.

Authorities seized 60 marijuana plants, 11.1 pounds of processed marijuana, scales, packaging materials and other paraphernalia from the barn and the home, Gravenkamp said.

I guess the news business really doesn't pay as well as it used to. As one of the story's commentators says, Tom of all people should have known where all the good hiding places are.

As you might expect, the sheriff also found medical marijuana recommendation papers for Tom and his wife and their (presumably) adult son, which should underscore the essential bogusness of the medical marijuana industry. I mean, here we have a guy who was working as an "outdoors" writer (which would require him to hike hither and yon all over California) AND was operating a small farm besides. Yet, he could also find a doctor willing to certify him as being sick enough for medical marijuana.

I don't care if the truly ill are smoking a little dope. At that point, who's it going to hurt. But, advocates for medical marijuana swore up and down that it was not a back-door effort to legalize marijuana and there would be all sorts of controls and only little old ladies with terminal cancer would be authorized to buy medical marijuana. Hasn't worked out that way. Instead, there are hale and hearty people like Tom Stienstra who have used sick people as a vehicle for a de facto legalization of a drug whose medical and social utility are debatable.