Opinion: In today’s pages: Romney, Knievel, Chavez, and Mary Jane
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The editorial board says Garden Grove’s Felix Kha should get his weed back:
The California Court of Appeal has upheld a lower court decision ordering the police to give back the marijuana seized from a driver during a routine traffic stop. This is likely to generate a wave of ‘Only in California’ jokes, but just because it’s wacky doesn’t mean it’s wrong. In 2005, Garden Grove police officers stopped Felix Kha for failing to yield at a red light. Kha consented to a search of his car, and police found one-third of an ounce of marijuana that Kha explained was for medicinal purposes. Orange County prosecutors dismissed drug charges against him after contacting his doctor, and Kha sought the return of his property. The police refused, saying that returning the drug would violate federal laws against marijuana distribution and possession....Can a city invoke federal law to justify its recalcitrance in complying with state law? This is where things could have gotten sticky. But the court correctly found that in this case federal law did not take precedence over California law.
The board says Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is still a threat, even if voters said no to his reforms. And the board addresses the FCC’s claim that easing the cross-ownership ban won’t curtail diversity.
LAPD officer and author Will Beall writes an ode to late daredevil Evel Knievel, and columnist Jonah Goldberg notes Mitt Romney’s JFK moment. Author Karen Dawn says seals and people can get along in La Jolla, and U.C. Santa Barbara senior research fellow Nathaniel Frank argues that we no longer need ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’