People are asking me who I support for Sheriff, so here are my thoughts. I sent a personal email to all the candidates regarding medical marijuana via the addresses on their websites and heard back from Mark Adams and Michael Teixeira. Adams said he would like to go after doctors who hand out recommendations like candy. Teixeira said he had no problem with the legitimate use of medical marijuana. The other candidates ignored my request for information.

I watched several debates on TV in which all the candidates answered questions from the public and expressed their positions on a variety of issues. And I read articles and other interviews about the candidates. From these articles and debates I deduced the following results.

Jerry Lenthall: A definite no vote for Jerry. He opposed medical marijuana dispensaries while he served on the Board of Supervisors, and he seems to be part of the “good ole boy” network. I noticed he didn’t answer questions about his stance regarding medical marijuana in the recent New Times article about the candidates (“Who can turn it around,” May 20).

Mark Adams: Seems like a decent guy and took the time to answer my question personally, but a Supreme Court ruling has already determined that the doctor-patient relationship is confidential and I don’t think we need a sheriff who will go after doctors for writing medical marijuana recommendations.

Joe Cortez: I like Joe and he seems like a decent guy but don’t like his approach to gangs. Cortez wants to use the Scarlett Letter treatment for gang members by making them wear orange suits and putting them to work where people and other gang members can see them being humiliated in public. I like Teixeira’s method of enticing people to not join gangs and giving up 20 percent of his salary to help with this diversion. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want gangs in our county either, but we don’t need a sheriff like Joe Arpaio who will make inmates wear pink underwear and sleep in tents for smoking marijuana.

Ben Hall: Hall is OK, but once again he seems to be focusing on issues that from my perspective are not really big. Hall says the biggest threats to our community are gangs. Now, I don’t encounter gangs very often and don’t condone gangs but I think the biggest threat to our community and our state are gangs of federal agents, sheriff’s deputies, and politicians who are playing the fear card and taking our rights away because “it is not in the best interest of the community.”

Ian Pakinson: I kind of like Parkinson but am pissed that he didn’t respond to my email questions. I saw Parkinson’s response to an email from a local attorney inquiring about dispensaries and although he had a decent response that he would not enforce federal law and would not walk all over the California Constitution and incorporated cities if they allowed dispensaries, the response came from his brother because Parkinson was too busy to take time to answer the question himself.

Michael Teixeira: I like Mike. Teixeira took the time to answer my question and he responded within 20 minutes. He gave a reasonable reply about medical marijuana, saying his parents suffered from cancer and could have benefited from the medical use of marijuana. But doesn’t think the medical marijuana provisions should be used as a path to legalization. He said if the voters want marijuana legalized they should vote in favor of that in the upcoming election. During one of the debates on TV, Teixeira seemed to be the only one who understood gun laws of the state and the legalities of possessing of a gun across state lines. Teixeira also thinks gangs are a problem but I like his deterrence and education approach as opposed to the brute force or scarlet letter approaches of other candidates.

So my choice for Sheriff is Michael Teixeira or Ian Parkinson. If we can get these two candidates through the June primary, then we could study them further until the big election in November. I also hope and pray that whomever our new sheriff turns out to be they get rid of Sheriff Hedge’s propaganda manager Rob Bryn. Either Teixeira or Parkinson would definitely be better than our current cruel, corrupt, wasteful Sheriff Pat Hedges, who has no respect for the Constitution and did everything in his power to destroy me and deny safe access to medical marijuana patients of our county.

Charles C. Lynch 


Arroyo Grande