The Veterans Administration has announced that they will now allow patients to use medical marijuana at clinics in states where the use of the drug is legal. According to a story in the New York Times, a department directive, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.

This presents an interesting dilemma for the federal government. While the benefits of medical marijuana are documented and vets are being helped by its use, it is still illegal under Federal law and certainly in federal facilities like VA clinics.  Legally, the fact that it is being used in a state that allows medical marijuana is irrelevant to federal enforcement. While the Obama Administration and the DEA have taken the position that they will not go after those using the drug in compliance with state law, it remains to be seen if medical marijuana crossing the border into federally funded facilities and getting that first foot hold into the federal domain a will sit well with Eric Holder and the DEA.  No one wants to look like the bad guy where our vets are concerned.

In 2002, Robert Norse, a known local homeless activist,  rendered a Nazi style salute from the audience at a March 2002 council meeting to protest the mayor’s cutoff of another speaker.  The presiding mayor didn’t see the salute, but it was brought to his attention by another council member who asked that  Norse be evicted from the meeting.  When Norse refused the mayor’s eviction order he was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The charges were later dropped and Norse sued. This tape of the incident  was relied on by a 3 judge panel in siding with the city.  The case has now been taken by a 11 judge panel of the 9th U.S. circuit Court of Appeals.  It could reach the Supreme Court.

Was Norse arrested because of an expression of dissent in his Nazi salute or because he disrupted the city council meeting?  I am no fan of the Nazi salute as to its meaning as mode of hate speech or dissent in general. To me the salute represents the murder of 11 million Jews and non-Jews. That’s me.  I recognize that Norse was not using it as statement of ethnic or religious hatred but as statement of contempt. Regardless, in this country, he has the right to express his beliefs in the former or the latter.

The city is  taking the position that any gesture whether verbal or non-verbal not made at the podium during the designated comment time is a disruption in violation of council rules subjecting the disruptor to removal.  A  3 judge panel sided with the city in their right to enforce rules that silence the audience unless they are at the podium.

In reviewing the video, it seems clear that Norse was removed specifically for making the Nazi salute. While the city council has the right to regulate their meeting to prevent disruption that prevents the administration of government, they are taking time, place and manner to the ridiculous extreme. They are going beyond what is necessary to ensure everyone is heard and the meeting proceeds and moving into the silencing of political expression. One may ask where we draw the line?  We should not be drawing it at non-verbal expressions of dissent.  This is inconsistent with the 1st Amendment. The decision of the 3 judge panel should be reversed on those grounds.

It is being reported by the New York Times that some law schools are purposely inflating grades in order to keep their graduates competitive in this very depressed job market.   I think the schools  are on to something here but are missing a huge revenue opportunity.

I propose that law schools adopt a “Frequent Flyer Model” to grading and sell grade increments.  When I am short on American Airlines Frequent Flyer miles for that trip to Europe, I buy an extra 10k miles for a grand. When I am short an incremental + grade away from that coveted Law Review spot or Big Law job, does it not make sense for the law school, instead of engaging in an illusory and inflationary grading practice for free to monetize it?  They should sell me an increment and help me bump the Law Review geek that actually worked for it while at the same time  filling the depressed funding coffers.   Like American Airlines, they could offer cut-rate weekend special grade boosts for  the C students about to accept a job at The GAP.

When law schools start figuring out that they are missing the boat with these gratis grade hikes remember where you heard it first…

I suffer from clinical depression. Not the fleeting kind you suffer when your NBA team was eliminated from the playoffs or your girl dumps you by text message.  The kind that results in life changing and ending decisions for  many us  suffering.  The ugly “S” word.  The journey associated with the often daily battle through fog and fear has taken me down many a dark road.  In the past months I have seen people I know, unable to find answers or hope take the journey into the abyss from which there is no return.  As I sadly read of their decision to take that final jump into the final darkness, terminating the future,  I am reminded of how all so fast it can happen.

This  slide into darkness has its own unique components for different people. Some are luckier than others in the support they get or their ability to reach out for that support.   I was very lucky.  I had everyone who loved me living in my city and within a few miles of me.  They were all in my life and knew my routines. That is what saved me. If I did not have that I would be dead.

I do not remember placing the Italian 45-caliber automatic pistol that my best friend had given me for a gift on my nightstand. I do not remember emailing him for bullets.  I do not remember emailing others of my desire to end my life. I realize now that it was my way of reaching out for help.  My only memory of those terrible few days on the edge 6 years ago was being  wakened out  of a Xanax stupor by people who cared for me, the pistol sitting inches away from me.   It happens that easy.   It was all so easy to slide in the fog from a Xanax coma to a 45 cal bullet.  It did not happen.  People loved me, cared and intervened.

While I think I have suffered from depression since I was a child, I do not have any sense of time in its effects as you have to realize it’s an issue to start the clock.   It has had its ups and downs.  Medication works wonders. Talking to professionals helps. Having a family that loves me, recognized something was wrong and was willing to intervene is something that many who suffer do not have. I am very lucky.

There however was one dark period that the low was so low and the fog of depression was so great that I only have vague memories of literally living on the edge of permanent darkness.

I have thought about telling this story before. I have always backed off because of self-interest.  I did not want to be perceived as weak.  I did not want to be stereotyped, stigmatized or shamed.  I did not want sympathy.  In the end, it is what it is.  If someone can take the message from this that there is hope and recovery from the edge of darkness to happiness and accomplishment in life. If someone will see that reaching out even when you do not want to has the greatest up side at all.  If one person gets that I will take all the  S’s people can throw at me.