The cops HAVE to take a strong stand against those dirty pot smokers, because otherwise the prison-industrial system would stop being so profitable and our cop friends would lose their jobs. Then we'd plunge into some kind of crazy commie-teabagger anarchy, where folks could just do whatever they want, like smoke pot, or blow up marathons.
This is in no way a comment on the rights of adults to do as they please as long as they're not hurting anybody: but these people are really irritating, and I have no sympathy for them. Boo Hoo.
That had me wondering. I guess only in Berkeley can a kid threaten to take the cop to court for taking his weed. I'd like to see how well that would go if they weren't a bunch of rich white kids. Did anyone get arrested?
In college I had a teacher (a part-timer who taught on the side to supplement her income as a civil rights lawyer) who got her second degree at Berkeley in the 80s. You were allowed to smoke weed in the lecture halls.
Her first degree was organic chemistry at MIT in the early 80s when ecstasy was still legal, and every lab there would be one or two guys blowing off the lab assignment so they could sit in the back of the room and cook up some E for the weekend.