Michael Simmons

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Unmaterial Girl

Michael Simmons
Sheila Nicholls has a battery-acid wit, a fierce fuck-off rebellious streak and a drop-dead gorgeous mug -- which is to say she‘s a hell of a dame. But the singer-songwriter-pianist’s most appealing attribute is her deep intelligence. She proceeds thoughtfully, questioning her motivations, mapping out her goals. And then, when......
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The Ultimate Bohemian

Michael Simmons
Marlene Rasnick -- actor, singer, teacher, gardener, activist and ”ultimate bohemian“ -- was a born-and-bred Los Angeles institution. All her roles were animated by a commitment to social justice and an ebullient personality, and seasoned with a rapid-fire laugh. ”She was able to focus on each individual talent and bring......

The Other War

Michael Simmons
Unable to find Osama bin Laden or dismantle al Qaeda, the Bush administration has attacked an easier target -- the 960 mostly AIDS and cancer patients of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center. Thirty agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration raided the West Hollywood center last Thursday. They detained......
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One Toke Over the Line

Michael Simmons
Mired in what is, by the year 2001, painfully redundant reefer madness, the Supreme Court on May 14 handed down its decision in the case of United States vs. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Cooperative. The be-robed ones denied a medical-necessity defense for manufacturing and distributing marijuana, and consequently denied the Oakland......
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Stone Free

Michael Simmons
Heroes are important. They make you want to stay alive when you aren’t sure whether you’ve been left behind, or are about to be run over, by the Trend Monster. They keep you running ahead of it or, better, running off down roads it can’t navigate. —The Reverend Ivan Stang......
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American Beauty

Michael Simmons
One more negative remark about hippies or the Grateful Dead and you punk-rock bullies will have petunias shoved down your throats. Yea, though I’m a full-blooded Hippie-American and original citizen of Woodstock Nation, I shall no longer take guff from the black-clad nihilists who’ve heaped scorn on my tie-dyed sisters......

Baca Goes Green

Michael Simmons
“It makes a lot of sense,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca says of the medical-marijuana bill currently in the state Legislature. Perhaps the most extraordinary element of SB 848 is that it was created by state Attorney General Bill Lockyer’s Medical Marijuana Task Force, with direct input from representatives......

Pot Reform Stalls in Sacramento

Michael Simmons
Photo by Debra DiPaolo "I have no idea what’s going on," says a frustrated state Senator John Vasconcellos (D–Santa Clara), summing up the purgatory in which California’s medical-marijuana policy is mired. Like characters in a Samuel Beckett play, patients and advocates anxiously await the arrival of a humane resolution, only......
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Grin 'n' Spin

Michael Simmons
DURING THE EARLY STAGES OF A HALLUCINOGENIC DRUG trip, the voyager experiences giddiness and a vision of existence as a zany, absurdist cartoon. Eccentricity in the mannerisms of others is accentuated. Laughter is maniacal and uncontrollable. Life is shorn of its somber cast, and all appears as it truly is:......

Task Force M

Michael Simmons
Photo by Debra DiPaolo "This is my thirty-third year in law enforcement. When I first started, one seed was a felony," says Pete Herley, chief of police of Tiburon, California, located in Marin County. "I was laughing during the meetings and I said, ‘If you’d’ve told me 33 years ago......