Snapshots of life in the Golden State.
Politics and Marijuana: an AwardWinning Mix

In the '70s, the key to untangling any political conundrum was to follow
the money.

In California in the '90s, it may be that the secret is to follow the smoke.

State Sen. John Vasconcellos will be getting a top award next week from the
liberal Drug Policy Foundation. He, in turn, will present the foundation's
journalism award to Garry Trudeau, the creator of the "Doonesbury" strip.

Here's the smoking press release element:

Vasconcellos is getting the award for his legislative proposals supporting
medical marijuana research, in the wake of Proposition 215. He is also the
same fellow who crafted the California Task Force to Promote SelfEsteem,
Personal and Social Responsibility, which was savagely mocked in the
nation's newspaper comics pages in 1987 by . . . Garry Trudeau.

Trudeau is being honored for last year's comic lampooning of the raid on a
San Francisco medical marijuana club ordered by an opponent of Proposition
215Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren, who still thinks 215 is "a dumb idea" but has
come out in support of research to settle once and for all the dispute,
"Weed: good medicine or good time?"

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