FIRST, FEDS CRACK DOWN ON DISPENSARIES. IS THE MEDIA NEXT?

A U.S. attorney in San Diego threatens to go after newspapers, TV and
radio that run medical-marijuana ads

My heart dropped when I received the call. A California Watch reporter
wanted me to comment on a U.S. attorney's new plan to prosecute media
who run medical-cannabis ads. That would be me.

It was bizarre. One part of my mind feared I was headed to prison,
while another part of my mind attempted to think of a coherent answer
to the reporter's question. After taking a breath, I told the reporter
I was stunned by this interpretation of the First Amendment. Other
reporters called as the day progressed, and I was able to improve upon
my initial answer. I said the U.S. attorney's plan was coming from
left field ... a field that apparently did not include the U.S.
Constitution.

I never would have thought the federal government would prosecute a
media owner who allowed a state-sanctioned business to advertise. And
I was not alone. Other much larger media corporations with bushels of
lawyers on staff, such as The McClatchy Co., which publishes The
Sacramento Bee; the Tribune Company, which owns Fox40; and local
billboard and radio companies were in the same boat.

Unfortunately, what I thought about it might not even matter.
Government attorneys have the power to destroy lives and businesses.
They may not always win their cases, but going to court is so
expensive and time consuming, that it is often the same as a loss.

And because the threat is so real, the natural response is to cave in.
This is what Google did, when it paid the federal government $500
million for the so-called crime of allowing Canadian pharmaceutical
companies to advertise less expensive drugs on its site.

The Canadian government, like most other countries, negotiated with
pharmaceutical companies to get lower drug prices. But in America, the
pharmaceutical companies used huge political donations to convince our
politicians that negotiating lower prices should be illegal. Thus,
Americans wind up paying obscene amounts for overpriced prescription
drugs instead of being able to purchase less expensive drugs from Canada.

Obviously, I don't have Google's resources to fight the government.
But I can tell you I think it was unfortunate that Google apologized
and immoral for the government to let the pharmaceutical companies get
away with it.

It's a case where a powerful political force crafted legislation for
its own selfish interests, then used the enforcement power of the
federal government to work against the interests of the American people.

And now the U.S. attorneys are considering going after local media who
carry ads from medical-marijuana dispensaries, even though these
dispensaries are legal in California. This doesn't seem to make sense,
but there's a lot that doesn't make sense these days.

At least now you can see why my heart dropped when that phone call
came.