LA Reporter Goes After a Story on Medical Marijuana Doctors and Dispensaries That Could Shut The System Down

By LA Lady:

As an effort to legalize recreational marijuana in California gains steam, one intrepid reporter who thinks it should be legalized goes undercover to sniff out the vagaries of the state's Medical Marijuana law and it's human enablers right now.  He all but admits his efforts could hurt medical marijuana dispensaries which are the safest way to get the herb to sick and often elderly people now, sending Granny back to the bad neighborhoods to deal with criminal pushers.  Or maybe she can just die because there doesn't seem to be a substitute for people on chemotherapy or otherwise finding it hard to to keep food down or an appetite up or you wouldn't have elderly women seeking out the drug in the first place.

The first I heard about the reporter's efforts was from a tweet.

Steve Lopez, the Los Angeles Times Metro guy, has a twitter account.  My brother in law follows him and the other day I was by for lunch when he said "Wow, Steve Lopez might be getting arrested".

It turned out that the writer had just tweeted that he had gotten a recommendation from a gynecologist for medical marijuana and was off to find a dispensary.

Well, he and my sister and I had just been reading and writing about the new anti-medical marijuana campaign going in the city.  A man getting a recommendation from a gynecologist seemed just the kind of scenario that might spell trouble for a seeker.

After work I called and he hadn't heard anything more so I checked at the newspaper's website.  Nothing.

Well, except an earlier report on Lopez sharing a cigar with the City Attorney who is the lead man on the anti Medical Marijuana jihad. Trutanich bought the cigars which are described as extra large by the reporter. Now in the old days the stories go that city officials that wanted  the news to cover a story their way brought along a bribe.  I don't know if a cigar can be called a bribe.  What if it's a really big one?  Okay then what if its a really big Cuban?   If I were a cigar smoker, I don't know... it might.

But in any case Lopez already liked Trutanich (and cigars, I guess) thinking the man some describe as a thug would help clean up the city.

So Lopez is on the ins with the City Attorney.  All worries about the reporter getting arrested vanished, but not those of Lopez' on a job like James O' Keefe's against ACORN.

His first report, one about visiting a doctor to get a recommendation for medical marijuana does nothing to assuage the fear of an espionage type situation.

Though I doubt Lopez could hide his name or would want to, needing a resulting recommendation to match his official ID, I read nothing in Mr. Lopez report that shows the doctor knew his true intent, which was to expose an easy access medical marijuana system.

Because we all want Grandma to have to wait 2 months for approval while in chemotherapy or suffering from some other debilitating condition if she makes it. Right?

Yet, Mr. Lopez assures us, his heart is in the right place because he actually wants recreational marijuana legalized.  If Granny only has to visit pushers for her Medical MJ for 5 years before that happens, then see, it's all for the good, I guess.  And the best way to get MJ legalized for recreation use is to get it banned as a medicine, I guess his thinking goes.

Still if we think of the ways that news is usually gathered.  Either a journalist uses secret or open third party sources or he or she goes directly to the primary source.   The latter method is the one Mr. Lopez used with City Attorney Trutanich, and see, he got a cigar for his honesty.

Even sixty minutes doesn't use the spy act or at least didn't the last time I watched.  They go to try to talk to unhappy sources openly even if a door is shut in their faces.

But intrepid reporter Lopez entered a doctor's office claiming to need medical marijuana for back pain, a condition he says he actually controls somewhat through stretching and pain killers.  Boy I hope Mr. Lopez doesn't realize that MJ does a lot better job than a stretch and pill just as he is instrumental on getting it nearly banned.  As an active person I get pains in the muscles and joints too.  I'm not that impressed with Ibuprofen, and won't touch the heavier stuff which is even worse for the heart.

Therefore, the doctor is thinking he's doing a good service for a man who has pain, and the man really is just getting a story.  This makes me think of James O'keefe who, posing as a pimp went into ACORN offices with a young woman posing as a stripper to get off-hand advice from working people, and then used secret video to send a negative view of the organization to the public.

As far as I know real journalists do not go spying on their subjects, at least since a trial case in which some Georgia reporters who took jobs at a grocery store and taped actions that many thought were unhealthy and dangerous in a food provisioning environment.  The trial jury ruled that lies on the journalists' applications caused were against the law and awarded the grocery a large compensation award.

But in general, if a journalist doesn't use video, doesn't lie on an application, and  still manages to go undercover is it okay to misrepresent him or herself as to their needs?

It is a common tactic for Fox News opinion show leads to send around "producers" to harass subjects they couldn't get to stand for harassment in their studios.  But even those people, though they stalk their subjects and catch them off-guard, are known to, and exhibit their motives to their prey.

But, of course, the doctor should know, Steve Lopez, shouldn't he?  The man is big at the Times. So unless the  doctor lives in the Valley areas where the LA Daily News is popular or maybe the Doctor takes one of the more local and great valley papers that I checked out during the recent fires, he should know Steve Lopez. 

The doctor was in Glendale, a city known as one of the valley cities.  Still Steve Lopez gave his name, and cited a valid pain, though he doesn't say he was there mostly for a report that could destroy the medical marijuana system in the Los Angeles area.

Well, Mr. Lopez got his recommendation, and says he'll have a report on his visit(s) to dispensaries on Sunday.  You can read his originals on Trutanich and the visit to the doctor via links below.

Maybe you don't feel funny about the way Lopez openly approached Trutanich (after setting up a meeting) and accepted a cigar from the guy, who had the opportunity to even bring a spokesperson along, and then visited a doctor under with a purpose that wasn't quite honestly expressed.

To City official : Thanks for the cigar!  (And then writes a pretty nice piece about a man that has much of Los Angeles cringing.)

To Doctor:  I need help for pain please give me a recommendation for medical marijuana!  (After which I will write a piece that might cost you your license.  Lopez doesn't name the doctor, but he shouldn't be to hard to track down, especially for the City Attorney's or County DA's office)

I just seems the bar levels aren't quite equal between Lopez and City officials  and Lopez and a private citizen.

And since Lopez visit to the doctor was just days after meeting with the City Attorney, it makes me wonder if one of the things Lopez didn't report on in his piece about meeting with Trutanich was a suggestion to go undercover.  I mean, how does an otherwise honest journalist suddenly decide to do gotcha journalism similar to that done by a right wing attack dog like James O'Keefe?

See reports:

NY Times: Push to Legalize Marijuana Gains Ground in California

The NYT report shows that even if a proposed initiative in California should pass next year,  the law would still be illegal at the national level.  My experience tells me that gaining legality at the national level would be about as easy as getting single payer health care mandated for everyone.  

It won't happen is my feeling.  The Obama administration has gone as far as it can go.  The huge liquor lobbies will make the Health Care Lobbies look like kindergarteners.

LAT -- Steve Lopez: Over cigars, getting a handle on Trutanich

LAT -- Steve Lopez: A visit to the medical marijuana doctor

tags: medical marijuana  california initiative  recreational marijuana  masntream journalism  

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