Two Sundays ago 60 Minutes ran a segment on medical marijuana in California, and Palm Springs made a little cameo appearance. The Rat has captured the image below.
The segment was criticized for being negative and superficial, but 60 Minutes had obviously been working on it for some time because this Palm Springs dispensary has been long shut down. The Rat enjoyed the piece but agrees it was a little negative--Morley Safer seems to approach the topic from the standpoint that being able to legally get high is somehow a bad thing.
Complaints ranged from CBS's failure to get response from the legislators who put in place the laws 60 Minutes has deemed flawed, to Safer's dismissal of some of the medical conditions doctors were giving prescriptions for as nonsense. (As if pain from high heels is somehow not real pain). The Rat's main beef is they didn't spend any time focusing on some of the good things the current system has created, other than the obvious "helping sick people" thing which we've all heard a million times.
One thing The Rat would've liked to see more focus on in the 13 minute piece would've been the money these pot dispensaries have been able to spread around the state. And not just from the shops that actually are charging and paying in appropriate sales taxes, but from the dispensary owners and workers themselves. These guys are raking in money gram over lid, and where do you think that money's going? Right back into the communities. The pizza parlors, video rental places, all night convenience stores, and not to mention advertising outlets.
The fact that these dispensaries have to operate under the banner of a non-profit has created a profitable situation for many of the people/businesses associated with them. The extra money has to go somewhere, so where does it go?
The employees get paid more, the dispensary takes it upon itself to repave the parking lot pleasing the landlord, the cable company is happy when the shop sets up a wireless internet and on-demand television network, the hardware store is pleased to sell them all the best lights and scales and whatever else, we could go on all night. And there's still a lot of money left over for advertising, which has never upset anyone in the free newspaper business. Especially free newspapers that have a third of a color page under an extremely recognizable and well read column available for purchase. (Those were good times, Alternative Care Consultants)
So yo, CBS and Morley Safer, sounds like you need to just lay off and take a chill pill, for real. And if that doesn't work, try a bongload of the purple Afghani Indica. Claim work related anxiety from all this focus on the negative. Then we'll see how ugly of a picture you'll want to paint of this wonderful system we have here in California.
