Goons Gone Gonzo

Goons Gone Gonzo

Common sense dictates that discussing politics or religion can get me into hot water, faster than a steep slide into a jacuzzi.  I don’t particularly like hot tubs, so I usually don’t talk politics, but I am also outraged at the way Californians are being disrespected by federal authorities, who operate as though this is last century sometime.  Up here on Bell Springs Road, we have DEA field agents operating on their own power trips, detaining citizens without reason or warning, intimidating them through implied violence, and threatening to run rampage on personal property.

Corruption of power begins at the top and filters its way down, as the battle between the federal government and individual states, over individuals’ rights, continues into the present day.  Back at the inception of our democracy, states’ rights were a central issue, stemming mainly from the economic and social differences between various geographical locations within our country.  Now it is about philosophical differences of opinion, with the federal government adopting a repulsively antiquated stance concerning the medical use of marijuana. 

Operating from a 1930’s mentality, the federal government continues to pursue a misguided and farcical course, involving marijuana and its users, in the classic “reefer madness” approach to the entire subject.  Though California has enacted public policies to regulate and monitor the dispersal of medical marijuana, via distribution centers set up throughout the state, federal agents continue to beat the backwoods, in an effort to shake down local citizenry, for the pathetic “crime” of growing twenty-five plants.  Worse yet, these federal cowboys also find it necessary to interfere with the right of passers by on public thoroughfares.  The entire situation reeks of bias towards medicine, with a huge contingency of buffoonery thrown in for good measure.  Either that, or pharmaceutical companies simply make larger contributions to the President’s coffers, than medical marijuana advocates.

In his platform for election four years ago, President Obama promised his support of medical marijuana, but has wavered in this goal in many areas since, especially as far as federal support for ongoing research is concerned.  Now with re-election on the agenda, he has once again pledged his allegiance to this cause.  And yet, in California, the owners of the clubs that distribute medical marijuana to card-holding medical patients, have been persecuted, not to mention prosecuted, by federal authorities, since early last year.

Whereas this is egregious, in and of itself, the government is also going after legitimate medical grows, of twenty-five or fewer plants.  This is an outrage.  I do not feel that the politicians in Washington DC, have any business telling me which medicine I should ingest, because I think that is up to my doctor.  Having procured my medical prescription, and finding it economically viable to grow my own, I am incensed that I must now worry about goons traversing my neighborhood, infusing fear and loathing into my world.  It is no more acceptable now, than it was 200 years ago, and I am going to protest, the same as my fellow countrymen did back in the day.

On Tuesday afternoon, two Bell Springs residents were driving approximately three miles up from Highway 101, when they encountered a gold GMC Sport Utility Vehicle, parked squarely in the center of this public thoroughfare, making it impassable.  After waiting as little as two minutes, by one’s estimation, to as long as five minutes, by the other’s estimate, the driver leaned his head out the window and hollered out an inquiry as to how long they were expected to have to wait, before they could go on about their business.  Other vehicles began to line up behind the original.

There were two men off to the side of the road, who kept glancing back at the two Bell Springers, while a single occupant of the GMC glanced back, opened the door, and got out.  He approached the two occupants, while making an ostentatious shift of his overcoat, to reveal a handgun in its holster, dangling down on his side.

“I am a federal agent and I am in the process of conducting official government business.  If you interfere with me in any way, I will come to your house next and seize your marijuana plants.”  He did not produce an identification, as is required by law, and he acted in an abjectly inappropriate manner, for a person who allegedly represented the federal government.  My two acquaintances simply acquiesced.  What else were they expected to do?  Except feel a sense of suppressed anger and frustration at the antics of a goon gone gonzo?

I am frustrated by big government’s unwillingness to follow through on campaign promises; I am incensed by the club owners’ persecution; and I am outraged by the presence of goons gone wild within my immediate community.  The whole medical marijuana issue has become a farce in the eyes of the federal government, which makes it look pretty out of touch with reality.

The reality is marijuana is recognized by the medical community as a viable source of relief for numerous medical issues, and the federal government needs to acknowledge this.  Otherwise, it may appear to a savvy public sector, that the legislators have been indulging in marijuana for reasons other than medical.  There does not appear to be any alternative explanation, for the backwards and archaic approach to marijuana that the government employs.