Now that Walgreens has invaded Telegraph Avenue and Trader Joe’s is proposed for University Avenue, it looks like Berkeley is finally becoming bourgeois. Right?

Wrong. Fear not hippies and students who wish they were students during the ’60s, for Berkeley’s spirit lies not in the 15 gelaterias that occupy a 10-mile radius around campus, but rather in the community’s fight to preserve its true essence—weed.

Last week the Berkeley Patients Group, one of the three (three!) medical cannabis clubs in Berkeley, found their assets frozen after their sister organization in Los Angeles was raided by the police. We didn’t even know such clubs existed before reading about the event, but now that we do, we fully support the 2,500 residents the Berkeley Patients Group serves with its wonderfully magical medicine.

By all means (please!) let Berkeley be the safe haven for the distribution of medical marijuana. What better issue to fight for? In fact, why are we even posting this? Who needs convincing? Under Proposition 215, more than 80 percent of Berkeley voters approved of legal medical marijuana. Even City Council members are warning Berkeley police not to make similar raids as carried out by the federal administration.

The lesson learned here is that from oaks to cannabis if it’s not green, it’s not worth saving. But you already knew that. For yet another example on Berkeley’s love for vegetation, “check out the enthusiasm for a plant that releases a stench similar to a decomposing mammal.

Mmm, yes. Now that’s what we call Berkeley.

Cannabis Club’s Assets Frozen [Daily Cal]