Even books are collateral damage:
If you walked into Capitol Hemp's Adams Morgan location today, you could buy yourself a "Make Hemp Not War" t-shirt. Or a bottle of Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap. Or hemp
oatmeal, loose-leaf tobacco and even the very water pipes that got the store raided by police last October. But you won't be able to find a copy of Andrew Sullivan's "The Cannabis Closet," a book that focuses on mainstream marijuana use.
Sullivan's book, along with many others, were quietly removed from shelves in recent weeks over concerns that they could be used to justify another police raid on the store. According to a source close to the store, lawyers for co-owners Adam Eidinger and Alan Amsterdam advised them to stop selling the books for fear that they could be used as pretext for another raid while the two negotiate with prosecutors over charges stemming from October's raids. It's probably sound advice. The police affidavit that justified the October raids made note of the books and DVDs in the store, using them to make a case that the water pipes the stores sells are actually nothing more than bongs to be used for marijuana.
You can still buy our book online. I recently made a plea to put pressure on Obama's campaign coffers over his administration's about-face on medical pot. A reader dissents:
I am a 24-year-old stoner in Southern California, and while I disagree with the idea of the government interfering with marijuana-related activity, I don't blame the President.
The way I see it, the people of my state had the chance to legalize it in 2010 and we failed. My generation failed and I can't blame the President for not wanting to stand to the left of 53% of Californians in an election year. Do I want better drug laws and full on legalization? Hell yes, but if a majority of CALIFORNIANS can't legalize marijuana at the polls, then I think the movement has bigger problems than Barack Obama.
As someone who volunteers for the Obama campaign on the weekends (the political nihilism of my local Occupy encampment drove me to it, ironically enough), I don't know what good it will do to harass us about this. I figure if he's going to get the balls to do something positive on the Drug War, he'll need strong progressive support. Haranguing him for not standing to the left of 53% of Californians doesn't strike me as the way to get there.
I used to vote on this issue and this issue alone, but as I've aged I've become way more concerned with and grateful for the way this President has helped middle-class families like mine in this difficult time. So despite the things we are legitimately concerned about regarding the administration's enforcement of these outdated narcotics laws, he retains the support of this stony college kid.
The issue is not legalization; it's enforcement of federal law against state law with respect to medical marijuana, which has been supported by a majority of Californians, and which is within the attorney general's purview.
The Dish 