Why are all the L.A. Times columnists using medical marijuana?
L.A. Times columnist Steve Lopez, one of the paper’s premier writers (Robert Downey Jr. played him in this year’s movie “The Soloist”) is the latest writer there to devote a column to obtaining medical marijuana. He describes the panic process he went through before he met with a doctor in Glendale to obtain pot to treat his back pain.
“My back problem wasn’t as obvious. Should I limp when it was my turn? … I was in a panic. I’d had a headache or two. Why hadn’t I gone with migraines, and was it too late to switch?”
Unsurprisingly, Lopez’s doctor (who turned out to be a gynecologist who admitted he knew nothing about back problems) was given a recommendation for marijuana use.
Sound familiar? It should. Lopez is at least the third L.A. Times columnist to write about his experience obtaining marijuana from a California doctor.
Back in 2008, Joel Stein did the same exact thing, saying that the whole process “took about four minutes” and ultimately concluding that, “I always wondered what would happen if marijuana were legalized for anyone over 18. It seems it already has been, and nothing happened.”
And before that, Times columnist Sandy Banks wrote about her experience buying pot to treat arthritis.
So what gives? Is the Times really this hard up for story ideas that they need multiple columnists writing about their adventures getting pot? If so, they might be better off hiring a group of randomly picked teenagers from my hometown – I’m sure they’d charge much less. Or perhaps it’s the editors who are doing most of the smoking, and simply can’t remember that they’ve run the same piece over and over again.
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[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by chemicallygreen, Sara Libby. Sara Libby said: New blog: What are L.A. Times staffers smoking? Oh, right. Pot. http://ow.ly/x7Up [...]
[...] The L.A. Times is stoned. [...]
[...] Sara Libby – Ill Communication – Why are all the L.A. Times columnists using medical marijua…. Tags: california, los_angeles, [...]
Of all the people who need medical marijuana for relaxation purposes, I think it would staffers at the Times. If I could buy weed with Sam Zell’s money, I would too.
Anyone who works in a newsroom should be afforded that little bit of tolerance. I’ve only been inside the Dallas Morning News. I can’t say what the LAT is like, but I’m willing to wager it’s insane.
Better that than Wild Turkey, if you ask me.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I don’t have a problem with anyone there USING marijuana. I am just tired of them wasting column inches WRITING about it over and over again.
In response to another comment. See in context »One day soon it will become passe.
I’m imagining that once alcohol prohibition ended, there were a thousand and one articles about what it’s like to casually imbibe a mixed drink with a group of friends and not end up blind from the impurities.
Editors must have gotten tired of that in short order. ‘Are you kidding me? Another piece about the virtues of vodka? Why don’t you go cover city hall or something?’
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] catch by Sara Libby, who notes that three separate L.A. Times columnists have purchased medical marijuana over the past 18 months. [...]
With 600 dispensaries in L.A., maybe someone sees some advertising green in all those columns. Or should?
But ya see, when Sandy Banks wrote her piece, the folks who were editors then were no longer the editors by the time Stein wrote his. And the staff was different (and much smaller) again, by the time Lopez wrote his. Between forced retirements and resignations, plus layoffs, there are MAYBE a half dozen long-timers at or below the rank of editor at LAT, and NONE of them is responsible for anything like proofing a Lopez column.
Besides, even if Lopez came last, there’s no one in the building day-to-day with the weight to spike or call for a rewrite of a Lopez column. Everybody KNOWS he’s on the brink of his next heart-rending tale to milk to death for the next several years! Don’t get in the way!
You’re absolutely right about that – one of my friends pointed out to me last night that even if an editor realized that the column was uber-repetitive, there’s probably not a person in that building who can tell Steve Lopez what to do.
In response to another comment. See in context »Make that four LA Times writers. I wrote this piece for the LA Times Magazine in 2007, before any of the other three. And unlike Sandy Banks (and I’ll bet Steve Lopez) I actually smoked the stuff and commented on its power.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/medicine/la-tm-marijuana06feb11,1,4405013.story
Of course, as a freelancer I didn’t have to pee in a cup.
[...] Medical Marijuana and the LA Times By encinoman Another media blog recently took the LA Times to task for having “at least three” of its columnists write [...]
Why? Because these articles write themselves. “Citizens beware- high powered medical marijuana easy to get.” In addition, guys at the city desk get to play intrepid undercover journos. The “stuff” was strong? How bout a haldol/oxycontin cocktail? Don’t worry, I have the presciptions.
Did any of the L.A. Times pieces take a states’ rights angle? Or was it all, “Hide the white women, demon weed docs in collusion with jazz musicians and Bill Lee.”?
A License to Chill
Surgeon General’s Warning: smoking marijuana can be hazardous to your health, unless you live in California and suffer from anorexia, arthritis, cancer, chronic pain or any other illnesses for which pot provides relief.
“chill” and “pot.” The prosecution rests.