Dispensaries, Discrepancies, and Discrimination

  
Marijuana is making its rounds around the web. And it seems like there is more and more movement to try and make it legal and stop the harassment of police at dispensaries.

Here are a few articles worth noting:

SF Weekly's Blog posted "Cops Claim Pot Clubs are Crime Magnets, Won't Provide Evidence To Back It Up" today (Wednesday, May 12, 2010).

The gist of the article is in the headlines. SFPD claims that the medical marijuana dispensaries on Ocean Avenue bring crime to the neighborhood. As someone deeply familiar with Ocean Avenue and the OMI, really?

My dear friend is a community organizer of the OMI. She sits on the Ocean Avenue Revitalization Collaborative, and she is actively involved in creating the OMI's cultural legacy. She has been doing this work since she was born, and she was born in the OMI over 50 years ago. I've worked with her for years, many of which have been supporting her work in the OMI. Never have I heard this issue mentioned. And trust me, I hear ALL the gossip of Ocean Avenue. Currently, the most pressing issue is whether or not Ocean Avenue wants to become a Community Benefit District.

What concerns me about this article is the start of an unsubstantiated assault on medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco by SFPD, specifically by Police Chief Gascon. I have lived in San Francisco for over 12 years doing community work all of those years. One thing I have learned in that time is San Francisco is overwhelmingly pro-marijuana.

This assault on legal establishments makes me cringe. It seems only a short step until more local laws are infringed upon.

Need a reminder? San Francisco is, on paper, a Sanctuary City. However, defining what made San Francisco a Sanctuary City, it used to mean city agencies not cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is changing. The new ICE Secure Communities initiative is a prime example. Secure Communities mandates that any time someone is booked by local or state law enforcement their fingerprints be compared to biometrics in the US Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Securities databases. It ties the hands of San Francisco to enforce its own Sanctuary City Policy. (Want more information? Click here and here.)

Then, I came across "Why Ending Marijuana Prohibition Is a Racial Justice Issue" an article in Race in America, a part of Change.org. 

Here are a couple of key quotes:

Of the 1.8 million drug arrests made last year, 750,000 were for nothing more than possession of a small amount of marijuana. That represents more than 40% of all drug arrests. The best available national evidence indicates that roughly the same proportion of blacks and whites use marijuana — but that black people are roughly three times more likely to be arrested for possessing marijuana. [...]

What's difficult to understand is how and why the number of people arrested annually for marijuana possession has roughly doubled during the past 20 years — even as support for ending marijuana prohibition has also doubled during the same period of time. [...]

In California, 61,400 people were arrested for marijuana possession in 2008, a 300% increase since 1990. In California, black people made up less than 7% of the state population but 22% of people arrested for all marijuana offenses and 33% of all marijuana felony arrests in 2008. More black people are arrested in California for marijuana felonies than whites, although there are six times more whites in the state population — and huge numbers of white people involved in growing and selling marijuana.

This is alarming and makes even a stronger case for why SFPD and Police Chief Gascon should stop assaulting legal establishments, especially establishments in historically black and brown neighborhoods. Ocean View was one of the few places after World War II where black/African American families could afford to purchase a home. During the 1960s, more black/African American families moved to the neighborhood. There is cultural and historical significance to Ocean View. Picking on the dispensaries on Ocean Avenue is an assault on black and brown people.

We do need to solve the problems of crime and violence. Discriminating against people of color and legal dispensaries doesn't do this. Instead, it reinforces the tension between SFPD and communities of color, and it continues the cycle of distrust.

Maybe, instead, we could learn something from the dispensaries. I know I have never seen a more diverse group of people communing between four walls. Never. It is amazing to behold. They may be more of the solution than the problem than we even know.

Here's to hoping and toking.

SF Weekly's Weed Takes Root

  
The S. Kitchen brings people together around food to connect, celebrate, and chow. It is about cuisine, camaraderie, and conversation. The core of these events are friends and family. Sure, we eat, but we also transform a space (right now my home) into something more than just walls. It is a space of love, laughter, and liberation.

John and I have been very intentional in how create this space. It looks effortless, but that supposes no physical or mental exertion. And that is most definitely not the case. In fact, it is full of effort.

Effort from the Latin is the combination of ex- "out" and fortis "strong". Therefore, when I read this week's SF Weekly article "Weed Takes Root", I thought "I better let people know about this and how it relates to the S. Kitchen."

You see... The S. in The S. Kitchen stands for "stoner". Now, I know many of you are not really shocked by that. You may even be one. But I haven't actually addressed the real intention behind effortfully making this about stoners (even though John doesn't even smoke). The reason is simple: to change public opinion about a supposed "drug", we need to be "out" and "strong" about our personal usage. The S. Kitchen is a place to be out and strong. And you don't even have to be a stoner to get behind that.

I have been a stoner for almost 12 years. It has changed my life for the better. Sure, it's easy to brush that off and dismiss it as typical of an addict or alcoholic to say, but that is only looking at a pattern not at the quality of life.

I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 21. It was something that always got in the way. Sure, lots of people have it and they function perfectly fine in the world. For some of us, not so much. In fact, my inability to pay attention directly resulted in going to two different colleges, flunking out of one and bailing on the other. I just couldn't keep it together to stay in school.

I dabbled with pot when I was in Minnesota and at school at Antioch. It was just a recreational thing every now and again. I had fun with it at parties or at bars, but that was about it. Then, I moved to San Francisco and found something different.

My ADHD diagnosis happened when I was home for two weeks before moving from Antioch College (in Ohio) to San Francisco. The doctor prescribed me Adderol, and then I hopped on a plane. A few days later after settling in to my new surroundings I decided to start my medication. I was up for three whole days. That may sound like a great time, but I love sleep. So I had to quit my medication.

I didn't have insurance or a doctor, so there was no way to get other medication. My head spun and spun and spun. All of the pent up hyperactivity kept threatening to eat away at any semblance of peace and quiet. At home alone, I felt like I was on speed even when I was completely sober. It made doing almost anything to completion impossible.

My occasional usage started increasing out of pure indulgence. Hell, I was 21, queer, and in San Francisco. Who wouldn't indulge? But things started slowly changing over time. I noticed that when I woke up in the morning, I could actually focus for a longer period of time. The voices that kept pestering me as I tried to fall asleep quieted. Sure they weren't silent, but I could tune them out. The nervous energy that made me zip from corner to corner would subside after a puff. Once again, it didn't go away completely, but it did make being me more manageable.

And I found a community of stoners. These people, these friends and family, are a unique bunch. Here is some of what I have noticed:

• generosity
• kindness
• love
• openness 
• dreams
• love
• an ability to think differently
• munchies
• love 
• slowness (as opposed to laziness)
• green, green, and more green
• love
• laughter and humor
• compassion
• love

Now, this doesn't go for all stoners. There certainly are slackers out there. But in my experience those actually are far and few between. We get a bad rap thanks to Pineapple Express, Up in Smoke, Harlod and Kumar, but some of the hardest working teachers, grocers, librarians, artists, writers, business people, techies, youth workers I know are stoners. And a lot of times it is something that is kept in the shadows or whispered outside circles for fear of what revealing being a stoner might do to a career.

That fear is understandable. We live in a society that has many negative perceptions of drugs, alcohol, and sex. But the tides are turning. SF Weekly's "Weed Takes Root" chronicles the shift not only in perception but also policy.

The Stoner's Kitchen is my attempt at helping continue this shift one meal, one conversation, one family at a time.