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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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Tom-toms on Tom
Fort Worth school superintendent Tom Tocco has enough on his mind trying to explain how $4.8 million in concrete disappeared on his watch (very suspicious, since that’s exactly the amount of concrete it would take to make a pair of shoes for each of his critics and sink them to the bottom of Lake Worth). Now, a bunch of PO’d parents calling themselves TAAS (Truth About Area Schools) are circulating a petition demanding that school trustees put Tocco in time-out — forever. “We ... are outraged at the superintendent’s management [and] support terminating his contract to restore fiscal responsibility to the administration,” the petition reads. Driven by critics such as Debby Stein, the grassroots petition is being sent by e-mail and fax and, one supporter told Static, is spreading “like wildfire.”
Big Oil, Big Drugs, Big Pull
Not satisfied with pursuing war in Iraq, Tyrant, er, President Bush is pushing a similarly oblique fight at home. Federal agents are invading the nine states where marijuana is legal for medical patients, destroying plants, and arresting people who grow them for medical use at approved public cooperatives.
California resident and author Ed Rosenthal, who is like an Ed Brice to potheads, is on trial in San Francisco for marijuana cultivation and conspiracy. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. His crime? Growing medical marijuana with approval by the State of California and the City of Oakland, where Rosenthal is a respected municipal officer. Bush’s DEA goons are picking fights with individuals rather than the cities and states that give individuals the green light.
The gap between state and federal laws hasn’t been this wide since the civil rights era of the 1960s. Feds then were enforcing equal treatment of the races. Now they are equating marijuana with heroin and crack cocaine. Seems a former boozing frat boy like Bush (who sidesteps questions about any drug use in his younger days) would know that smoking grass is OK for adults, especially those seeking relief from cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and other diseases. And then, of course, the Prez might wish to consult with his former gubernatorial self, who supported the right of states to write the laws on marijuana.
Like the oil in Iraq, however, the marijuana debate has a Big Money connection that seems to put a gleam in Dubya’s eyes. Major pharmaceutical companies stand to lose billions of dollars should medical marijuana be legalized.
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