Here’s the genuine item: tough, relentless but also, ultimately, merciful, and magnanimous.
THE WAR ON POT: Here’s a tragic story from the federal government’s campaign to prevent people with severe medical conditions from relieving their pain with marijuana. A San Diego man, Steve McWilliams,
who had to cease using medical marijuana after a 2002 arrest, suffered from chronic pain and was likely facing prison time after being charged by federal prosecutors three years ago with possessing 25 marijuana plants. A Supreme Court ruling handed down last month said that federal law prohibiting medicinal use of marijuana trumps California’s voter-approved Compassionate Use Act.
Facing time in pain and in prison, McWilliams killed himself. Another victory for the nanny state.
PTOWN MOMENT:
NADAGATE? John Tierney turns in his best column to date:
For now, though, it looks as if this scandal is about a spy who was not endangered, a whistle-blower who did not blow the whistle and was not smeared, and a White House official who has not been fired for a felony that he did not commit. And so far the only victim is a reporter who did not write a story about it.
I agree with all that, but especially the first two words. For now. Someone somewhere initiated this Washington series of Chinese whispers. Who? This quote from Bob Novak in Newsday on July 21, 2003, still hangs in the air: “I didn’t dig it out, it was given to me. They thought it was significant, they gave me the name and I used it.” Who are “they”?
The Dish 