In 1995, something surprising happened. A local chief of police in Marin County, California, asked Lynette Shaw to coffee. As an advocate for cannabis and the known purveyor of an illegal, underground cannabis club, she didn’t exactly make regular coffee dates with the law. The chief wanted to talk to her about AIDS. He had an officer down from working in the field, and apparently this officer wasn’t the only member of the police force silently suffering from what was still termed “the gay disease.” Even more surprisingly, he asked Shaw about cannabis brownies and how this man could medicate. The sick man was losing 25 pounds a month, and the Chief was looking for guidance. “I said, ‘If I were you, I would hand your patient some literature and turn a blind eye,’” she admitted. “I gave him my pager number, and he got back to me and said ‘The officer gained 30 pounds; he is much better, and I really believe this is something important.’”
