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08/08/06
Val Zavala>> Tonight on Life and Times --
The politics of pot. Dispensing medical marijuana is accepted in some southern California cities and shunned in others.
Paul Nowatka>> We have prided ourselves in being a very conservative and extremely clean city for all of fifty years I've been here. You're talking about Torrance, a city that doesn't even allow Bingo.
Val Zavala>> And then, what is our governor really like? A new book reveals the person behind the politician.
These stories and more next on tonight's Life and Times.
Announcer>> Life and Times is made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
Val Zavala>> Ten years ago, Californians said yes to using marijuana for medicinal purposes, but marijuana is illegal by federal law, so that has sparked a long-standing feud between state and federal authorities. Well, now a medical marijuana dispensary opened in the conservative city of Torrance and, as Sam Louie tells us, that has triggered a whole new feud over medical marijuana.
Sam Louie>> Off Hawthorne Boulevard in Torrance sits a nondescript store sandwiched between a Chinese restaurant and a florist. There's no sign to say what happens here, but it's been open for business since April. What you will find are people going in and out. They're customers to get their supply of medical marijuana.
Christopher Drong>> "You get it in a bag and it's stapled shut so, you know, if the police pull you over, there's no proof that you've been using."
Sam Louie>> Some are here because of a high school football injury.
Christopher Drong>> I feel it's a lot less than the price for prescription drugs in comparison. I only need a very little bit and it works very nicely. It's more natural. It's just part of the air. That all that matters.
Sam Louie>> Others are here because of an accident.
Robert Winters>> I have three bulging discs in my neck. It basically causes a lot of radiating pain down my arm and up my neck and I have problems sleeping and severe headaches, stuff like that.
Sam Louie>> This dispensary had been operating quietly until the Torrance City Council caught wind of it. At the urging of the city's police department, city officials started looking for ways to shut it down. So what happens here? The owner did not want to be interviewed and did not allow our cameras inside.
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Sam Louie>> So we headed twenty miles north to West Hollywood where this medical marijuana dispensary has been operating for a year and a half. It offers patients a choice from a dizzying array of marijuana. Some can be smoked and some ingested. But finding a dispensary is difficult.
Andrew Kramer>> West Hollywood is one of the only cities -- in fact, it is the only city in southern California -- to openly welcome dispensaries within its boundaries.
Sam Louie>> Andrew Kramer is the manager of this West Hollywood dispensary. He feels that more cities should allow them.
Andrew Kramer>> You can go ahead and continue to have people obtaining marijuana illegally, cruising the streets at night, doing what they have to by obtaining it from a street corner, however they get it. Or you can have it in a place where it's regulated, the city can tax it so they raise money off of it, and you know what's going on. It's safe access. No one is getting robbed and no one is getting murdered. All of these things that you would associate with an illicit activity do not happen at a dispensary.
Sam Louie>> Back in Torrance, a city known for its conservative and clean image, council members are determined to keep it that way.
Paul Nowatka>> You're talking about Torrance, a city that doesn't even allow Bingo. When there were attempts to locate tattoo parlors in our city, we fought it and won.
Sam Louie>> Torrance City Council member, Paul Nowatka, is worried that allowing one dispensary will cause others to follow.
Paul Nowatka>> I would have expected it to expand once you open the door. That's the same theory we have used with others like the tattoo parlors and so forth. You fight the first one so you don't have to fight number fifteen.
Sam Louie>> Federal law prevents the cultivation or possession of marijuana, so how do dispensaries and patients in this state skirt around it? Back in 1996, California passed Proposition 215. The proposition permitted Californians to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes. Fifty-one year old, Laurie Storley, has multiple sclerosis and uses the Torrance dispensary. She's been confined to a wheelchair for the past six years.
Laurie Storley>> I get a lot of lower back pain. Sometimes my spasms get so bad that I cannot straighten out.
Sam Louie>> Laurie uses marijuana to relieve her back pain.
Laurie Storley>> I feel more relaxed, which helps my spasms. You can have the spasms in various places like your bladder and legs and everything.
Sam Louie>> Laurie would like to see the Torrance dispensary stay open as allowed by Proposition 215.
Laurie Storley>> We all voted for it. I think those of us such as myself should be able to obtain it.
Sam Louie>> But others disagree. Ford Kuramoto is with the Drug Rehab Referral Service. He believes that Proposition 215 was an effort to legalize drugs.
Ford Kuramoto>> It's kind of an incremental effort, one step at a time, to sort of win public support so that eventually marijuana and other drugs will no longer have any restrictions on them.
Sam Louie>> Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in America. In fact, there are now more teens in drug treatment for marijuana than for all other drugs combined.
Ford Kuramoto>> We're actually seeing a very high rate of use and coming into treatment because of marijuana addiction.
Sam Louie>> Kuramoto is also troubled by the dispensary touting themselves as providing a medical service.
Ford Kuramoto>> It's not a medicine in the sense that the product is approved by the FDA where they're dispensed by pharmacists and they're controlled in using all of the regulations that are required by Health and Human Services.
Sam Louie>> Despite Proposition 215, federal law maintains that even medical marijuana is illegal, bottom line.
Paul Nowatka>> Well, it's very clear that the Supreme Court of the United States said that this type of an operation was in violation of federal law. My personal belief is that we cannot authorize a business to operate in violation of the law.
Sam Louie>> To settle the dispute in Torrance, the City Council decided to put it to a vote. The audience spoke out overwhelmingly in favor of the new dispensary.
Jan Matthews>> "I never smoked marijuana in my life until I threw the Vicodin in the ocean one day because it wasn't relieving the pain in my neck from the pinched nerve."
Josh Shriber>> "The only thing that I'm able to get up in the morning and move my body."
Sam Louie>> After two hours of passionate testimony, the Council voted. The vote was unanimous. The dispensary will have to close.
[Film Clip]
Sam Louie>> Some were openly disgusted by the vote.
[Film Clip]
Sam Louie>> Barring any legal challenges, the Torrance dispensary could be forced to close in early December. That would leave fewer options for patients like Christy Brewer.
Christy Brewer>> Spend more money on gas and more time and, you know, more pain to spend four hours to go in and get your medicine instead of, you know, one hour is a big difference when you're in pain.
Sam Louie>> As for medical marijuana dispensaries, whether or not they stay open seems to depend entirely on the city where they choose to set up shop, and tolerance towards marijuana is as varied as the drug itself. I'm Sam Louie for Life and Times.
Val Zavala>> And now this Life and Times story update. Last April, we reported on an art exhibit in Paris where more than eighty Los Angeles artists went on display at the prestigious Pompidou Center, one of the world's most admired museums of contemporary art.
But last week, its reputation was marred when it was revealed that two pieces had fallen from the wall and shattered. One was a famous and fragile Plexiglas work by Craig Kauffman lent to the Pompidou by LACMA. And before the exhibit opened, an eight foot resin work by Peter Alexander fell. Both are a total loss.
Before the exhibit opened, we talked with Los Angeles art patron, Lyn Kienholz, who was key to making the exhibit happen. She described the project then as challenging.
Lyn Kienholz>> We went with fingers crossed, you know, because of the problems and, you know, the lapses in communication. It was very difficult, as I said, for the last year. We went and we thought, "Oh, God. What is it going to be like?" Well, it's stunning.
Val Zavala>> That was before news of the destroyed artworks was announced. It has now shaken the art world and cast a serious shadow on the Pompidou's reputation.
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Val Zavala>> November may seem like a long way away to you and me, but to Governor Schwarzenegger, the November election is right around the corner. Now there's a new book out that gives us an unprecedented inside look at Arnold Schwarzenegger, the politician, and the man.
Few reporters know Governor Schwarzenegger better than Los Angeles Times reporter, Joe Mathews. He's followed the governor over the past three years from the successful recall election to his failed plate of reformed measures. Now he's put his observations in a book called "The People's Machine: Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Rise of Blockbuster Democracy". I asked Mathews what he thought the most common misperception of the governor is.
Joe Mathews>> I think the greatest misperception people have about him is the impression that, as a political figure, there are people running him, that he is sort of the face, the actor, and that people are telling him what to do. He's a very difficult person to tell what to do. It's his great strength, but also a weakness. It explains a lot of his success. He's like many people who are sort of self-made.
I mean, in his case, almost self-imagined and very, very smart. He's like a lot of people that sort of made it on their own. He listens to a lot of points, but he doesn't particularly trust anyone but himself to do things right, so he's actually a bit of a micro manager. When I tell people that, they find it a little hard to believe, but he really is. He is running the government. There's no sort of team of people with him that's the public face.
Val Zavala>> So you're saying that Schwarzenegger is not somebody to be managed?
Joe Mathews>> That's correct.
Val Zavala>> That's good and bad, right?
Joe Mathews>> Right, right. You know, his instincts for the public are pretty good. I mean, that's sort of his talent in life. He has a pretty good and interesting -- I mean, he wasn't a great actor. You know, his instinct is to sort of have a sense of where the public is going to be and to give people what they want.
Val Zavala>> Is that what you mean when you say he's a people person?
Joe Mathews>> Yes, that's exactly right. I mean, that's what his business is. He thinks he has an ability and he seems to have a pretty good idea of what's going to turn people on. In a lot of ways, when you look at that as your strength, politics and making movies don't always seem like entirely foreign professions.
But the difficulty is, he makes decisions himself in his own time and that sometimes works out very well. The best example of that being when he decided to run for governor. That was a decision that he wrestled with and talked to his wife about, but he didn't tell anyone, including her, that he was going to do it because he didn't decide to do it until he was actually on the show. I mean --
Val Zavala>> -- what show was this?
Joe Mathews>> The Tonight Show. He'd gone with pluses and minuses and he said that he had been kind of given permission, a hall pass, from his wife, but he didn't, you know, really make up his mind to do it. But it was his decision. It was no, you know, real council advisers. It was his.
Val Zavala>> So what's an example of the down side of being an independent thinker like that?
Joe Mathews>> I think the down side of that is that, no matter how smart you are, how wealthy you are, independent you are, if you're wrong, you're going to be really wrong and it's hard to move him when he's determined.
Val Zavala>> Mathew says the governor's biggest mistake came in his relations with the California Teachers Association. At first, things were great and the CTA lent Schwarzenegger crucial support. Then they went along with the deal to cut education funding to help ease the state's fiscal crisis and the governor promised to pay it back.
Joe Mathews>> Then he gets into office, makes a budget deal with them and really ties himself to them. You know, they lobby for his budget, they agree to give up some money one time --
Val Zavala>> -- with the promise to get it later.
Joe Mathews>> So he's done all this. He's gone all the way down the road. He's going to work with these --
Val Zavala>> -- how did he make an enemy of the CTA then?
Joe Mathews>> By far the most important -- I mean, there's not even a close second. The most important mistake of his time in office was going back on that deal. And the promise was -- because Proposition 98, the education funding was so complicated, but he bungled it. I don't think he understood what he had with the CTA. I mean, they were preparing to endorse him for re-election. They were talking about it. They had internal working groups.
I was skeptical when they told me this, but they actually showed me the paperwork to re-evaluate some of their positions in ways that they could have done some kinds of education reform. I mean, he had this Democratic interest group really in partnership with him and he just blew it by walking away from that money.
Val Zavala>> What do you think Arnold's personal political future will be? I know they've made jokes about his being president, but that requires a constitutional amendment. It probably won't happen at least in his lifetime. Where has he left to go?
Joe Mathews>> You know, if he gets re-elected, he'll serve out four more years as governor probably. I do wonder sometimes if we were in a different era where, if he moves around and he sort of has public positioning around enough, that if he gets re-elected and moves his public positioning, you know, where he is in a jarring way, if there isn't a huge incentive for someone to try to have a recall vote against him.
I mean, for two million dollars it takes for one megalomaniac, right? I mean, for two million dollars, you'd become world famous as the person who is, you know, trying to remove from office our Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Val Zavala>> Oh, you think someone might try recalling?
Joe Mathews>> I think so. All it takes is one person. It takes about two million dollars to qualify.
Val Zavala>> Really? But he's so popular.
Joe Mathews>> Right, but it doesn't mean he will win. I mean, most recalls fail. But I couldn't imagine a recall vote. Four years is a long time and he's likely to try big things in a second term if there is one, enough to upset one constituency or the other. In the future, I don't know. I've heard him talk about his interest in international relations, though you know what? I've asked him, "Do you want to be Secretary of State?" No. "Do you want to be in the Cabinet?" No.
The only job I've ever heard him sound vaguely interested in -- he keeps saying he's going to go back and be with his family. He'll be sixty-three in 2010. You know, I think, and most people who have known him a long time think, he's talked about being president since he was twenty-one years old. You know, he didn't become a citizen until 1983 when he was thirty-six years old. So how would you do that?
I mean, the argument I make in the book is the initiative system. I mean, he likes going around. He likes tours. He likes big campaigns. When he was with the first President Bush, he went and campaigned in all fifty states for physical fitness. You know, I could see him taking ideas he cares about, probably environmental and maybe redistricting, and creating sort of half-national initiatives in initiative states.
Val Zavala>> Oh, I see. Going state to state and getting things off the ground.
Joe Mathews>> I mean, this is highly unlikely and purely speculative. This is no plan that I have been let in on. But if you have political organizations in different states and you ever want to pass a constitutional amendment, you know, you got to do it. You've got to get three-quarters of the states to do it. He'd be in the right place actually.
Of course, he'd do things that he would like to do on issues he cared about. This doesn't seem too crazy an idea, though. I said, "So you could see yourself doing that?" He said, "Well, I could see myself advocating on issues maybe in all states" and that's as far as he goes. You know, I don't know. I'm as interested to find out as you.
Val Zavala>> (Laughter) Well, he's certainly changed the political landscape in California. Joe Mathews, thank you so much. Good talking with you.
Joe Mathews>> Thank you very much.
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Val Zavala>> It was a year ago this month that a new Mormon Temple opened in Newport Beach. Now that's a major event for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and, for a short time, non-Mormons were allowed to go inside, but no longer now that the temple is in use. Still, we thought on this one-year anniversary that it would be a good time to look back at the story that Roger Cooper filed on the opening of the Mormon Temple in Newport Beach.
Roger Cooper>> It sits on a hillside overlooking central Orange County, a just-completed edifice crowned with a golden angel. It's from the church famous for its Tabernacle Choir and synonymous with Salt Lake City. It's the Newport Beach temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Vern Hancock is Temple Project Manager for the church.
Vern Hancock>> The angel is actually a fiberglass angel. It's golf leaf. It represents the Angel Moroni who visited Joseph and actually is trumpeting forth the Last Days, the coming of the Savior.
Roger Cooper>> The huge crowds are showing up to do something that can happen only once in the lifetime of the temple, go inside and take a tour. Once a temple like this is dedicated, non-Mormons are never again allowed inside.
>> "Please come forward."
Roger Cooper>> But for the six weeks leading up to the dedication, the temple has an open house allowing Mormons and non-Mormons alike to see the magnificent interior. During tours, shoes are covered to protect the new carpet.
>> "As we go into the temple, you'll see that the temple is really patterned after the temple that you read about in Kings, King Solomon's Temple. The first room we'll go into is the Baptistery."
Roger Cooper>> Although visitors are allowed inside now, our cameras were not, so we could only show you images of the interior provided by the church. In the Baptistery, a baptismal font is supported on the backs of twelve oxen representing the Twelve Tribes of Israel.
Vern Hancock>> The function is the primary focus of the room and that is baptism. In this case, we call it Baptism for the Dead. It's a way of extending the gospel to those who have passed on.
Roger Cooper>> Vaughn and Juanee Baird are temple project missionaries from Salt Lake City. They've spent two years in Newport Beach watching over the construction.
Vaughn Baird>> The artwork that is in the murals in the first of the two instruction rooms is very impressive. It also represents southern California, the coastline, and that's a magnificent feature.
Roger Cooper>> In the Celestial Room hangs a fourteen foot tall crystal chandelier with six thousand parts. Even among Mormons, only those who have reached a certain level in the church will attend ceremonies in the temple. Beyond the Celestial Room are sacred areas called the Sealing Rooms.
Vaughn Baird>> This is where the families are sealed together. This is where the linkage takes place. This is where we become an eternal unit.
Juanee Baird>> This is where families are sealed together for all eternity, so this is the highest ordinance that we have in our church and that is performed in the Sealing Rooms. It's a very sacred place.
Roger Cooper>> Construction on this hillside spanned two years and, although there are many Mormon meeting houses, there are only one hundred twenty-two temples worldwide. This Newport Beach temple is the sixth built in California.
Vaughn Baird>> San Diego, Redlands, Newport Beach, Los Angeles, Fresno, Oakland, and Sacramento is now under construction.
Roger Cooper>> Gale Mair has been the manager of temple construction. Only the highest levels of material and craftsmanship were accepted.
Gale Mair>> Probably one of the hardest things about building the temple was educating the subcontractors of the level of quality that's expected. As they bid the projects, they would look at an industry's standard as acceptable. We tried to educate them through our bid documents that there are several levels above industry standard that's required on these projects.
Vern Hancock>> We feel like the building should represent the highest standards of construction because we feel like this is the highest standard of living with the functions that go on inside.
Gale Mair>> When we have a painted piece of wood, you don't even see the joint, I mean, a hairline crack or anything. It's completely concealed.
Vern Hancock>> I can't give you a cost. That's something our church always keeps confidential.
Vaughn Baird>> The one thing I really like about the exterior is that it fits so well, color and design-wise, within the community and it looks to me like it belongs here. In fact, as I look at it today, it looks to me like it's been here. It fits into the community.
Roger Cooper>> Construction of a new temple is a major event for the thirty thousand Mormons who live in Orange County. No longer will they have to travel to Los Angeles or San Diego to temples. But why are non-Mormons not allowed inside after dedication?
Vern Hancock>> We feel very strongly about the sacred nature of what goes on inside. It's obviously not a secret thing because you've been through. We gave you pictures and photographs. We're taking a hundred fifty-plus thousand people through here over a period of six weeks, so the building itself, there's nothing secret. But to us, going in, making covenants, being in that very special place, binding ourselves together as families, that's very sacred and we don't want that to become commonplace.
>> "The temple has been built with the best quality materials. We would like to think that the temple is built to last for a long, long time. Looks like they're ready for us. Please come in."
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Roger Cooper>> For non-Mormons attending the open house, the temple is a chance to learn about a different faith and perhaps dispels some misconceptions.
Vaughn Baird>> We're from Utah. We've not spent much time in southern California, but we have thoroughly enjoyed being accepted here by the local members of the church as well as the people in the area other than the members of the church and have felt very comfortable here.
[Film Clip]
Roger Cooper>> In Newport Beach, I'm Roger Cooper for Life and Times.
Val Zavala>> That story first aired a year ago and, as I mentioned, only church members are allowed inside. But, of course, we can all enjoy this beautiful building from the outside.
And that's our program. I'm Val Zavala. For everyone at Life and Times, thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
Announcer>> Life and Times was made possible through the generous support of the L.K. Whittier Foundation dedicated to improving the quality of life by supporting innovative endeavors in the fields of medicine, health, science and education.
And by a generous grant from Jim and Anne Rothenberg.
Sponsored in part by:
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