A writer in the Fresno Bee let loose with a sarcastic – and quite good – diatribe today against the theory that medical marijuana dispensaries and collectives are “magnets for crime.”

Three times — yes, three whole times — in the past couple months Fresno County pot dispensaries have been crime scenes. Wow, that’s a crime wave.

Even though I’ve never, in my 30 years, even smoked a cigarette, much less the ol’ Mary Jane, I’ve still taken an interest in this issue. Particularly now that pot shops are “magnets for crime.” It’s made me concerned about other crime “magnets” in our community, too.

You know how they say marijuana is a gateway drug? Well I think if we’re going to ban medical marijuana dispensaries, it should be a gateway ban.

Lots of places are magnets for crime. Bars and liquor stores, for example, are often tied to our society’s seedier side. Robberies, DUIs, assaults — a lot of that can be tied back to booze.

Let’s get rid of them too.

The point is the whole “magnet for crime” theory is a bogus attempt by anti-cannabis advocates to discredit medical marijuana. We live in a crime-ridden society, and the atrocious economy has only made things worse.

But you know where a whole lot of crime happens? In homes.

Home invasions. Domestic incidents. Peoples’ idling cars getting stolen out of the driveway on winter mornings.

What if we just got rid of houses? That would surely help eliminate another “crime magnet.”

If our opponents had any real ammunition against our beliefs, they would use it. Instead the same old fallacies and myths are trotted out and expected to work again. But all myths eventually fall by the wayside, as the saying goes. 2010 is the year we put all the myths and non-truths about cannabis to rest.

- Joe Klare