[420 Girl]

The generation gap celebrated at Woodstock 40 years ago is as wide as it's ever been right here in North County, judging from recent public statements by a couple of local city officials. Those who came of age when "Don't trust anyone over 30" was the mantra of the young are now in leadership positions showing their distrust of anyone under that age.

According to Mayor Pro Tem Dick Daniels, if Escondido allowed medical marijuana to be sold legally to alleviate the pain of the sick and suffering, the healthy young people of the town might not understand why they can't buy pot for recreational use.

"The message has to be clear and consistent if we're to educate our young people about not using dangerous drugs," he wrote in a Community Forum for this newspaper ("Marijuana outlets have risks for Escondido," North County Times, Aug. 13). "I'd rather be perfectly clear about the dangers of using any illegal drug under any circumstance than dilute the effort by trying to explain exceptions."

Here's a closer look at the "exception" Daniels now needs to explain to Escondido's callow youth.

Why can't Uncle Ed buy his medical marijuana here legally to relieve his pain from cancer when Mom gets her monthly Zoloft prescription filled at the downtown pharmacy, allowing her to use that dangerous drug to help her cope with the stress of everyday life?

Councilman Sam Abed, explaining why he opposed medical marijuana dispensaries in the city, declared, "I don't want to be in a city where kids are exposed to this kind of thing," adding that pain-ridden Escondido residents can simply drive over to Vista to buy their legal medical marijuana.

Abed can only hope that Uncle Ed's niece won't be allowed to ride along with him when he goes shopping in Vista or doesn't have relatives or friends living there who might spill the beans about that den of iniquity.

The biggest question of all, of course, is why does California permit the sale of marijuana to relieve chronic pain, when the federal government outlaws any and all use of it? It's because "we the people" voted for it. That's a very hard pill for some conservatives to swallow. I suspect if it were put to a national vote, the majority of Americans would follow California's lead.

Marijuana could then be sold in pharmacies, just like Prozac, Zoloft and other mood-altering drugs we now keep our children away from without a prescription.

During the last 40 years, some members of the Woodstock generation seem to have forgotten how parents underestimate their children's ability to detect hypocrisy and thrive in a changing world. They oppose medical marijuana for fear their kids will turn to drugs and same-sex marriage for fear their kids will turn gay.

Conservative columnist George Will pointed out the folly of trying to mold the younger generation in our own image when he observed that schoolchildren find being gay about as interesting as being left-handed.

http://www.420magazine.com/forums/in...hypocrisy.html