It is incomprehensible that SLO doesn't yet have a countywide Peace, Freedom, and Marijuana Festival, complete with giant blunt floats and free bags of weed thrown to the crowd—that Highway 101 isn't crowded on both sides by pungent, verdant cannabis fields swaying in the breeze.

What is this, Mayberry R.F.D.? Are we all a bunch of drooling goobers?

Look, folks: The war on marijuana was a lie. It was waged by chemical companies afraid their poisons would be replaced by natural cannabis products and by control freaks and authoritarians afraid that people might have wild ideas under the influence of pot and start thinking for themselves.

Further, it was a complete waste of time and money. There was always pot next to the schools, and in the schools. There's pot in the DMV, in the churches, in the Starbucks, in the libraries. There is pot everywhere. There always has been. Somehow we survived. The idea that marijuana was "evil" was a sham.

Diablo Canyon is closing.

Marijuana can be a billion-plus-dollar local industry.

If you're having trouble connecting those two ideas into one big picture, maybe you should consider having a puff. Time is wasting!

Sean R. Shealy

San Luis Obispo