Gone to pot

I hear you.

“Why do The Pot Issue now?”

Glad you asked. We had this convergence of different reporters, working totally independently, coming up with various stories related to cannabis.

Why not, some really smart stoner suggested, we do a cover story on pot.

Let me be more clear: It was not that we were going to compile a cover story while inhaling or eating cannabis. What’d be the point in that? It’d be like every other cover story written for this paper.

No, a cover story on pot in this instance would be a cover story devoted to the issues surrounding marijuana in Sacramento.

It all started because our intrepid reporter Ralph Brave had a scoop involving pot busts and the DEA. Then Nick Miller had this story brewing involving someone, um, in the, uh let’s just say this chap was involved in the procurement of a commodity quite popular with folks one would find in a Further Festival parking lot. Capiche?

Nick also had this other story working that you should be reading right now (it’s Monday night as I type this and he hasn’t filed it yet, but he will … or else!). Then Ralph had to take some time off before completing his story. And the, erm, commodity broker backed out.

Death of The Pot Issue? Not on your life, Wavy Gravy. The pot genie was already out of the bong. Several others among us already had whipped up our own pot-related articles. Somewhere along the way, someone got the bright idea of making all the stories in this issue weed related. Except for Letters, a couple Upfront items in News, Ask Joey, ¡Ask a Mexican!, some Calendar listings and picks, the film reviews, the food review—oh, also excepting the adult ads … and the non-adult ads for that matter—just about everything else you’ll read here should be 4/20 friendly.

Speaking of 4/20: Yes, Dave Chappelle, it would have made more symbolic sense to run The Pot Issue on April 20. But dig this: this issue date is August 23—8/23. Half of 8 is four, and two plus three equals five, and four times five is twenty—4/20.

Dude, did I just blow your mind?