I refuse to engage in the perpetual punnitry (ha!) that wafts around the medical marijuana conversation in this country. It's just not funny anymore.

Seriously, people, we are on the verge of voting to make this plant legal in California. I, for one, am proud to live in a city where it's been effectively legal for years. The first time I was motivated to vote was when I moved here in 1996 and Proposition 215 was on the ballot. Since then, things have evolved, tons of other states have legalized medical pot - America has actually become more like San Francisco.

But the stoner jokes and wordplay mania are embarrassing. Thus, this business, as earnest and probably useful as it is, is embarrassing.

It's a shame, because one thing I love about the site is its appropriation of the pharmaceutical industry's aesthetic.

Also, this was totally inevitable.

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You'd think that Los Angeles' 800-1,000 medical marijuana dispensaries would be considered some sort of success to pro-legalization advocates in Washington, D.C. According to an article in today's Chron by C.W. Nevius, you would be wrong:

"If you wanted to write a textbook on how to screw up medical marijuana," said Bruce Mirken, the San Francisco-based communications director for the national Marijuana Policy Project, "the first thing you should do is hire the Los Angeles City Council."

Mirken's low opinion of the state of medical cannabis in California's most populous city isn't a case of pious provincialism, it's the worst-kept secret in the entire pro-pot movement. More after the jump...

Of course, to compare L.A. to San Francisco for the purposes of possibly using the latter as a model for the former is tricky at best. Because of the vastness and population density of the City of Angels, SF's simple, yet effective policy may not scale.

But the bigger problem for Angelenos is the lack of will of its board of supervisors to be as proactive in its post-Prop. 215 policies as SF's board.  It is difficult to explain the enormous gulf in the culture of these two cities in their attitude toward implementing Prop. 215. Los Angeles has more in common with municipalities in the Central Valley which have been downright hostile in their approaches (or lack thereof) to medical cannabis than it does with the city by the bay.

All of which brings needed attention for clearer policy direction and oversight on a state level. Not just on the dispensary issue, but on the equally pressing issue of cultivation. Now that the Feds have officially backed off, there's simply no excuse.

Ideally, says Mirken, a state-level plan for clear and consistent cultivation rules would be implemented, but that's a long way off. He seems to have some hope for SF's own home-grown attempts, via a medical marijuana task force, to implement "city-controlled growing." And there's momentum for it with city officials.

As for C.W. Nevus' column in general, his cartoonish reference to brownies and bongs is every bit as embarrassing as an old Aunt Jemima bottle, and a cringe-worthy conceit for a major media outlet in one of America's most progressive cities.

Nevus later sheepishly admits that Campos' proposal DOES make sense. But he just HAD to go there. Hey Nevus, when hate crime legislation comes up, why not joke about disco balls and Barbra Streisand?

C.W.'s  clearly not ignorant about the issue of medical cannabis - so why sink to the level of a Fox News pundit? You're on SFGate. I realize it's not Mother Jones, but consider your audience. You're talking down to them. If they can handle Violet Blue, they can handle a sober assessment of a serious subject.

How embarrassing that your readership is smarter than you are.

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My curiosity was piqued by this Kottke post, so that a quick search turned up these awesome photos of happy inhabitants. More after the jump...

The folks at Opium Museum speculate that they were possibly taken by famed California photographer I. W. Taber, whose career was ended by the '06 quake and fire, during which his studio, gallery, and negative collection were all destroyed. From the Opium Museum's Flickr account that these images are posted in:

The photographer obviously had built some rapport with his subjects. Opium dens were dimly lit and so the photographer would have had to use flashpowder -- newly invented in the late 1880s -- to illuminate the scene. Some photographers of this period took photos of opium dens by barging in and taking a single flash photo before running back out. The result of such photos can be imagined... This series on the other hand gives us an idea of the socializing atmosphere that could be found in these places if the visitor was on good terms with the opium smokers.

Here's a confirmed Taber image, "White Women in Opium Den, Chinatown, SF," from 1892:

Learn more about the history of smoked opium and the artistry of its paraphernalia at the Opium Museum website.

Related book: Historic Photos of San Francisco
From Amazon
From Powell's

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