Barney’s On the Beat

Free the Evil Weed? When I was a young court
reporter here in the early 1960s, I covered a trial where a
middle-aged man was accused of (gasp!) possessing half a joint. His
old lady ratted him out and cops — North County, as I
recall — found a half-smoked marijuana cigarette in his robe. The
jury found him guilty and the judge sent him to prison.

Santa Barbara cops would raid pot parties — people sitting
around smoking dope. Professional couples would pull down the
shades, turn off the lights, and huddle in the bedroom to sneak
tokes.

But how the world has twirled. These days in Santa Barbara if
you’re found with less than an ounce you’ll get a citation and $175
fine, police say. No jail. Police will tell you that sniffing out
dopers isn’t a big deal to them. Not with all that devilish meth
around. “We don’t spend a lot of resources,” Lt. Paul McCaffrey
told me.