Last dance with Mary Jane, no more time to kill the pain...

In a time when the "war on drugs" can be considered a huge waste of time and resources and smoking pot is considered mainstream, how does the owner of a community-welcomed medicinal marijuana dispensary get arrested and convicted of multiple felonies?

As the Mustang Daily reports on the front page today, Central Coast resident Charles Lynch was found guilty last week on all federal counts for selling medical marijuana from his dispensary in Morro Bay.

This case could prove to be the precedent case when it comes to medical marijuana laws in California and states' rights. Federally, selling marijuana is illegal in any way, shape or form. Under state law, selling it for medical purposes is legal. But of course, federal law trumps.

Yet, we believe that the issue at stake in the Lynch case is not federal law versus state law, but personal liberty versus government regulation. This case is about so much more than the legalization of medical marijuana. It's about legalization of whatever substances people freely choose to consume and for whatever reasons they choose to do so.

In criminalizing the use and sale of marijuana, the government has assumed the role of an overbearing parent, telling consenting adults exactly what they're allowed to do with their own bodies.

In a free society an adult should have the right to make his own decisions about his personal health and happiness. He may choose to drink alcohol or not. He may choose to smoke cigarettes or not. Some people choose to consume vast amounts of caffeine (aspiring young journalists who work until all hours of the night to put out newspapers like this come to mind). Is drinking coffee a personal choice? Yes. A health hazard? Perhaps. Illegal, or infringing on anybody else's rights? Certainly not.

So why is marijuana any different?

The federal government has apparently decided that it knows better than individuals themselves how they should treat their bodies, and it invests billions of dollars annually in that belief. According to the FBI's Web site, a record 829,625 people were arrested for marijuana violation in 2006; of those, 89 percent were arrested for possession only. Just this year, the United States has spent over $31 billion in taxpayer money fighting this victimless "war on drugs."

While there are only a handful of dispensaries in the tri-county area, mostly in Santa Barbara according to www.medicalmarijuana.com, their existence is protected under state law. In fact, Lynch and his facility were welcomed into the Morro Bay community with open arms and as a member of the Chamber of Commerce. Not quite the behavior of a sneaky drug trafficker.

Despite Prop 215, the Drug Enforcement Agency, a federal agency, still investigates and raids dispensaries, which begs the question: what's the point of a state law if it doesn't protect anyone?

If dispensaries are technically legal, why are they facing such harsh consequences? Just recently, Santa Barbara passed a city ordinance to allow them, but the two dispensaries face being shut down because of their locations. With the closing of Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers, there are no available medical marijuana facilities in SLO County, though there is a delivery service.

At Lynch's trial, the prosecution did its best to paint him as a seedy, hardened drug dealer, selling his crime-inducing substance to derelict addicts.

Yet, the San Luis Obispo New Times reported the former software engineer as "generally unimposing, and unfussy, even in a suit," and someone who doesn't seem like "the kind of man who will do well in prison." The Morro Bay mayor and city attorney have both testified to his upstanding character.