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Miserable Fresno deserves marijuana

Supporters of marijuana dispensaries sit in the Fresno City Council chambers while awaiting their turn to give public comment prior to a vote by the City Council on June 22. Ed Miller writes that life in Fresno is so tough, its residents deserve this ‘harmless indulgence.’
Supporters of marijuana dispensaries sit in the Fresno City Council chambers while awaiting their turn to give public comment prior to a vote by the City Council on June 22. Ed Miller writes that life in Fresno is so tough, its residents deserve this ‘harmless indulgence.’ CRAIG KOHLRUSS ckohlruss@fresnobee.com

Let’s get real for a moment. We live in America’s drunkest city.

Fresno has the highest concentration of liquor stores per capita in the state. If you want to open a liquor store, Fresno says, “Friend, how can we help?” However, if you want to open a cannabis dispensary, it’s “Get thee behind me, Satan!”

I can think of few cities more deserving of complete and unfettered marijuana access than Fresno. Have Mayor Lee Brand and Councilman Garry Bredefeld really had a good look around? I mean, seriously, beyond the scattered, upscale boutique neighborhoods, the ballpark and the Save Mart Center? Have they really looked around?

Fresno has the fewest parks, fewest jobs, the most economically segregated schools, the poorest air quality, the most groundwater contamination, the most blight. Along the Highway 99 corridor, with its sprawling junkyards serving as goodwill ambassadors to the new visitors, Fresno most resembles, aesthetically, one of those grimy industrial cities of the former Soviet Union.

Add to it crime, homelessness, miserable summers and foggy, depressing winters, and I believe, just for living here, citizens have earned the right to a harmless indulgence already codified by the state. Don’t Big Brother us.

Ed Miller, Fresno

This story was originally published September 5, 2017 at 3:21 PM with the headline "Miserable Fresno deserves marijuana."

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