THE NEW SHERIFF NEEDS TO TAKE THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA LEAD

I suppose it was inevitable that outgoing Sheriff Pat "Reefer
Madness" Hedges would take one more bite out of the ass of the county
taxpayers before he left to spend more time scaring his family.

But I was dismayed to hear incoming Sheriff Ian "Rational Approach"
Parkinson invoke the Sgt. Shultz defense ("I know nothing!") about
the raids against medical marijuana cooperatives in December ("The
road ahead is filled with potholes," Jan. 27).

Because he is the one who will have to help clean up the mess left
behind, perhaps Parkinson could have discussed the raids with the
D.A. and suggested a different approach-like go to those cooperatives
and say, "We know the law's murky, but here's what you have to do to
abide by it. Otherwise, we'll have to arrest you."

Who knows? He might have saved taxpayers thousands of dollars at a
time we can ill afford it (and I'd like to see a full report on the
total cost) and avoided scaring the crap out of some children who
were marched off to protective services like little criminals.

So what have we got to show for the bluster and might of the
well-armed SLO Narcotics Task Force? Fifty agents on overtime, eight
search warrants, 15 arrests for the dreaded "Mary Jane," a dead dog,
some poor shmoo wetting his pants while locked in a police van, and
the opportunity for some back-room cop bluster. ("We sure showed
those guys! When we banged on the door, I thought one of 'em was
gonna wet his pants ... oh, wait, he did! Har har!")

But charges that might actually stick? The jury's still out on that
one-the D.A. has already rejected charges against three of the
miscreants. I thought we all had learned something from the Charles
Lynch debacle; how many millions did that one cost us?

We need to have a rational medical marijuana policy in SLO County,
one everyone can agree on that doesn't force people into these gray
areas so easily exploited by the storm trooper mentality among us. We
are looking to you for leadership, Ian. Right now, I keep hearing The
Who in my head: "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss."

John Frees - San Luis Obispo