Banned in the 916

I heard the Sacramento City Council is making all the pot clubs move. Is that true?

—420 U-Haul

Not true. At least not yet. The city council met last week to discuss changing Sacto’s medical-marijuana ordinance so that clubs would have to be 1,000 feet from “sensitive use” areas like parks and schools and churches. City staff claims that doing so would make the clubs more compliant with federal guidelines for medical marijuana, even though California state law says that clubs only have to be at least 600 feet away from sensitive-use areas. The problem is, there are virtually no spots in Sac that fit the 1,000-foot rule, so changing that law would amount to a de facto ban.

Besides, if the feds were serious about that rule, they wouldn’t have raided El Camino Wellness Center, which is far from any school, church or park. I give the city council props for not changing the ordinance last week, but we need to put friendly pressure on them before this issue comes up for vote again on February 19. Call your city council member and tell him or her to support marijuana dispensaries! And I mean that for everyone, not just the folks in Sacramento. We have reached the tipping point, and it’s up to us to push the whole thing our way.

I’m a young adult who has just entered college, and I have realized that it’s a lot of stress. I live with my parents, who put even more stress on me to be the very best in college. Sometimes I just can’t handle it. Should medical marijuana be something I look into?

—KCR

Don’t despair. You aren’t the first person to have a stressful freshman year. There are things you can do. By the way, I am not a mental-health-care professional, but my ex-wife is, so I gave her a call, and she had some good advice: Don’t just jump straight into marijuana.

There are lots of other ways to deal with stress. Exercise and meditation are two good options. Talking to a mental-health-care professional is a good way to learn about ways to deal with stress. Go talk to someone at your school’s health-services department about the problems you are having, and they should have a few ideas on how to get you smoothed out.

The thing about cannabis is, while it is an effective stress reliever, it can also become a crutch. There are way too many people that use cannabis to escape from, rather than deal with, their problems. Plus, if you are already stressed out, cannabis can make you a little panicky and paranoid. Trust me, weed-induced panic attacks suck. So, perhaps after you’ve learned more about yourself and why you get stressed out and have developed some tools and coping mechanisms, then maybe, at the end of a productive-yet-challenging day, you might be able to watch the sunset while having a toke and letting your well-managed and not completely overwhelming cares float away on a ring of smoke. Enjoy your resilient youth.