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Pushing Pot: Fairfax Medical Marijuana Activist Campaigns For Lieutenant Governor
Tad Whitaker | Marin Independent-Journal | 09/25/2006

When the Rev. Lynnette Shaw's Fairfax house turned into a moldy health hazard after the New Year's Eve flood, she didn't do what everyone else did.

Shaw, head of the Marin Alliance, which runs a medical marijuana dispensary in Fairfax, declared her candidacy for lieutenant governor, moved to Hollywood and started singing lead in a blues band on the Sunset Strip.

Shaw developed a marijuana-friendly platform, says she figured out a way to solve the immigration problem and, along the way, picked up an endorsement from Willie Nelson.

"It's an opportunity to throw away a vote and support medical marijuana," Shaw said.

Shaw still runs the alliance and the Fairfax pot clinic, and she plans to return to town after the campaign.

The Libertarian Party drafted Shaw to run after finding out she collected 15,000 votes in 2002 in a bid for the Marin General Hospital Board. Party leaders gathered 1,000 signatures to qualify her for the Nov. 7 ballot.

Shaw moved to Hollywood for the dry, hot weather so her lungs could recuperate from health problems caused by her moldy Fairfax house. It's also where she came from 26 years ago before she moved to Marin County.

One of the first things Shaw did after heading south was find a Methodist church with an emphasis on music. Shaw said her old friend, John Belushi, planned to build a marijuana-themed singing act around her shortly before he died, and she said it finally seemed like a good time to give it a try.

"I'm not too old to rock 'n' roll," said Shaw, a 52-year-old graduate of Antioch High School. The blues act takes second billing to the campaign.

Shaw has addressed one group after another hoping to spread her message. The Retired American Alliance, Retired Police Officer's Association of Southern California and others like them have all heard her speak.

Her basic platform is outlined in a campaign statement:

"For years, the sick and terminally ill have been arrested, jailed and imprisoned for taking the medication of their choice. As lieutenant governor, I will stop this travesty. Medical cannabis was approved by the voters in 1996 and I promise to stop the federal government from overstepping their powers to interfere in medical choice. It has always been my opinion that government should be a referee and not a player in society. We need leadership that will foster the rights of citizens and their freedom to be left alone."

When talking to a bunch of retired cops about legalizing marijuana, Shaw said she sticks to the facts.

Prisons are full of nonviolent drug offenders, people can benefit from pot's medical qualities and taxes are going up in smoke to pay for marijuana law enforcement.

"I've shaken a lot of hands," she said. "I'm very well known around the state."

One person who has never heard of her is Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who is the front-runner in the lieutenant governor's race.

Garamendi stopped by the Independent Journal last week and shook his head when asked if he was familiar with Lynnette Shaw.

"I'm not," he said.

Shaw said her most ambitious plan would help illegal immigrants and native Californians alike.

She said she thinks California should invest money in Mexico to create an industrial-size hemp industry, organic farms and solar power fields.

Do that, she said, and Latinos will stay home with their families for the good jobs and Californians will reap the benefits of healthy food, a sustainable alternative to trees for paper, and clean energy.

"Willie Nelson thought it was a great idea," she said.

Shaw is on the road a lot these days, and she recently cruised through the Bay Area for a fundraiser thrown by a former member of Spinal Tap at an Oakland marijuana club.

Business at her Fairfax pot club is down 50 percent, she says, because many of her 3,000 clients have learned to grow their own marijuana - something of which she is extremely proud. She said that was the goal all along.

Shaw said the recent discoveries of marijuana valued by police nearly $80 million in West Marin shocked her group.

She said the pot farms were orchestrated by organized criminals who tore up the watershed and used pesticides on the crops, horrifying the organic marijuana community.

"They ruined the land in the name of greed," she said. "I'm furious."

Although she has little chance of winning, Shaw said getting the pro-pot message out helps the cause. She cited the time a few years back when she filed signatures to recall then-District Attorney Paula Kamena, who had gone after medical marijuana users - but turned down the heat after getting in the political fight with Shaw.

"Not one patient has been busted since we filed those signatures," she said.

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