KICKING OUR POT HABIT WILL BE EXPENSIVE

Let's face it: In just a few years our struggling economy has gotten
hooked on pot.

In "an open letter to President Obama" Jeff vonKaenel, president of
the weekly Sacramento News & Review, writes in the Oct. 13 issue:

"Closing California's dispensaries could jeopardize thousands of jobs
physicians, security guards, solar-panel specialists, delivery
drivers, lab techs, marketing specialists, attorneys, insurance agents.

"Local TV, radio, online and print media have been helped by
medical-marijuana advertising dollars. And the money that's pumped
into the local economy by these dispensaries is spent on rent,
groceries and at local restaurants and retail stores

"Legal dispensaries can be regulated and taxed. Illegal drug cartels
can't. I humbly suggest our U.S. attorneys have much more important
things to do than cracking down on medicinal-marijuana dispensaries.
Might I suggest looking at banking and securities fraud, for example?"

There are so many pot-related ads in the Sacramento News & Review that
it's taken to aggregating them in a special tabloid insert entitled
"The 420," described as a "weekly look at medical cannabis in the
Sacramento region." Last week it ran 16 pages.

A week ago Searchlight publisher Cannon told reporter Ryan Sabalow
that pot ads generate some $100,000 in revenue for the paper. That's
enough to pay the salaries and benefits for a couple reporters.

If the recent federal crackdown is serious, the withdrawal symptoms
will be painful