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June 9, 2008
BBC Buys Marijuana in LA: 'This place is like Amsterdam'
He went to a clinic in the San Fernando Valley of the city and the only medical condition he could think of was how he gets anxious.
Soon, the doctor appeared - a softly-spoken Vietnamese man who introduced himself as Dr Do.He wore a white lab coat and scrubs and led me into a spartan room where he proceeded to take my pulse and blood pressure before asking precisely how long I had been anxious.
"Several years," I told him.
"Do you suffer panic attacks?" "Not really."
Dr Do wrote panic attacks in his notebook. We spent a few minutes shooting the breeze about Asian cuisine and he signed a prescription for medicinal marijuana, valid for a year.
And that was it. Done and dusted in less than 10 minutes.
"You see, I told you," a friend waiting outside told him. "This place is like Amsterdam." Now part of the 250,000 Californians who carry a license to get high, Willis decided not to buy, but rather to frame his achievement and dress his wall with it.
Photo of a Studio City Dispensary by lavocado via Flickr
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this is the beginning of the end
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It's cheaper in amsterdam. And the cops won't arrest you for smoking weed in public.
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So...he went to a doc...for a pot 'script...and he got one...and this is news (to the British public)....
To bad you can't get a dentist in the UK as easily as you can get legal weed here in CA...
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I went to amsterdam for the 4th time in December/January and when i got there I realized that SoCal had taken over as the best place for cannabis.
Needless to say it was nice to come home.
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LOL kifbox.
Yes 90039, stories like these only give the DEA more ammo for raids. The industry might be slowly killing itself, but you never know.
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Don't you see - all he really wanted to do was write an instruction manual. Now more people who wouldn't otherwise have figured it out on their own will now know how to get it. Which means more fat and high people walking around LA just being wasted space, taking up my oxygen, and driving around in gas guzzling SUV nearly sideswiping every non-SUV vehicle out there while on the cell phone talking about "like how awesome was like Grey's Anatomy like last night?" and texting the passenger in the 3rd row "like bfd, u total r my bff" and flicking a cigarette onto the street on their way to a Clean Up CA Bonfire. Did I miss anything?
UK 1 , US 0.
:)
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"Did I miss anything?"
Yes you're obviously missing your brain. I rather doubt that as many people a year get hit by high drivers as they do drunk drivers. But by all means have yourself a good rant.
The DEA loves you.
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the entire collegiate population of california knew this to be true about two years ago.
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That was actually a joke - loosely inspired by Denis Leary when he was doing stand up.
No sense of humor these days around here.
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"That was actually a joke."
Sorry ph. I like to pounce on right wing wankers.
My appologies.
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Uh, jokes usually need a point to be funny. Furthermore, equating potheads with "gas-guzzling SUV drivers"? Uh, what? "Prius" would have made much more sense.
The BBC article is highhanded and is dripping with the author's contempt for drugs. I'm glad you felt the need to publicize your quams David Willis, thanks for ruining it for the rest of us!
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"Uh, jokes usually need a point to be funny."
I thought ph was referring to what happened a couple weeks ago. The DEA closing down six clubs because some over medicated dufus had an accident driving under the influence, and had products with that club's name on them.
Since the ATF doesn't close down distilleries every time there's a DUI accident I feel a bit stongly that it's just selectivce prosecution, and DEA harrassment.
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Hadn't heard of that incident.
It doesn't surprise me in the least that the DEA would pounce on any excuse possible to close down a few clubs. I'm surprised that they wait for any excuses at all, really. I'd thought that they would have raided all of the clubs by now. I guess that's what the moratorium was for, buying us a few more months in wonderland.
There was an article in the times (NY) today about growers up north and how their neighbors are complaining. One guy was actually quoted saying that he was outraged at the large amounts of electricity being used to grow. Unacceptable carbon footprint or whatever. I hadn't heard that one before. The days of "legal" pot in CA are numbered.
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I certainly hope the days of "legal" pot in CA are not numbered. The issue needs to be discussed, not just enforced and ignored.
I agree with the LA City Council in putting a moratorium on new locations until further study.
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"I agree with the LA City Council in putting a moratorium on new locations until further study."
I have to agree with that as well.
First let me say that I've always counted myself among the "let's legalize it" crowd.
But what was once a very earnest, good intentioned, political movement, to gain safe access for patients who need medical MJ, has now become nothing more than an enterprise.
The real shame is that most dispensaries are now nothing more than a way for pot growers and pot dealers to achieve some measure of legitimacy.
IMO what needs to happen is;
1.) The federal government needs to end the nationwide prohibition against the recreational use of marijuana, and let the individual states decide.
2.) We need to get a state voter initiative passed that would legalize recreational use.
3.) The state legislators need to come up with a method to tax it, and regulate it.
4.) Then the feds need to leave the states who approve recreational use ALONE!
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All I can say is:
Watch the movie "Super High Me." Exact same idea as Super Size Me, however, the guy smokes pot hard for 30 days (or business as usual as he calls it) - Doug Benson is his name, legendary stand-up comedian. The movie is based in California and revolves around the issue of marijuana being viewed as the "stupid drug" and the need for state vs. federal regulation. The DEA is constantly lambasted (with good reason) for rogue-agent type activities, such as shutting down dispensaries even though they were in possession of all (and then some) legal and ethical accreditation.
The war on drugs makes too much money for too many people. Judiciary makes big dough for, prison systems in America are run as a private business (jamming 500 recreational users of marijuana - made dirty only by definition - into a prison is a great way to keep the funding coming)
Fact!: California spent more than $10 billion on pot in 2006, even at a nominal tax rate they could have made a KILLING... instead it slips through the cracks, and more money is wasted trying to stop it!