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Letter from the Editor

Roberto C. Hernandez, 
Editor-in-Chief
CULTURE Magazine
 

Coming Back Full Circle
 
I don’t believe in destiny. In the Terminator flicks, I’d be Sarah Connor carving “No fate” on a picnic

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Roberto C. Hernandez, 

Editor-in-Chief

CULTURE Magazine

 

Coming Back Full Circle

 

I don’t believe in destiny. In the Terminator flicks, I’d be Sarah Connor carving “No fate” on a picnic table. In Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, I’d be Keanu Reaves telling Rufus that no-way was my future already written. My apologies to H.G. Wells.

 

That being said, I’ve come to realize that maybe, just maybe, some things were just meant to be. Case in point, as the newly appointed Editor-in-Chief for CULTURE Magazine, this is the first time I’ve been put in charge of a medical-marijuana lifestyle publication. I’ve worked gigs as a writer for a daily newspaper and I’m very experienced with manning the captain’s chair for indie music mags and alternative newsweeklies. But this is the first time I’ve been given the keys to the kingdom of a cannabis magazine.

 

But this is not the first time that I’ve tackled the still-relevant issues related to legalization and a lifestyle that cuts across music, art, entertainment and pop culture.

 

While digging through my garage, I recently uncovered the first article I’d ever written as a student journalist. And it made me have second thoughts about my place in the medical marijuana world—and my destiny of championing the cause and the lifestyle. The yellowed copy of the Bulldog Weekly (the University of Redlands’ college paper) proudly proclaimed a headline of “NORML’s Pipe Dreams: Legalize It?”

 

How prophetic.

 

Seventeen years ago, as a barely-18 wannabe hippie who could barely grow a decent goatee, I apparently felt it was of supreme importance to talk about something years before Proposition 215 and SB 420 became a reality and before Proposition 19 was making headlines.

 

I thought I was being such a crusader. I thought I was on the cutting-edge. Name-dropping groups like Cypress Hill, Red Man, and the Black Crowes. Arguing how marijuana culture was spilling over into the mainstream. Back then, marijuana legalization seemed radical enough. Much less legalization of medical marijuana.

 

And, yes, in that article, I was supremely guilty of the crime of using obvious and horrible metaphors like “turning over a new leaf,” “pipe dream” and (ouch) “joint venture.” Did I mention I was barely 18?

 

Back then, terms like “da kind” were brand new. Back then, I was listening to way too many Grateful Dead bootlegs.

 

Back then, I was daydreaming in my algebra class and figuring out which of the dorms’ resident advisors either smoked or tolerated it.

 

But, back then, too, the belief that cannabis was a question of personal liberty still applied, as did the concept that it was a right that was always being threatened by law enforcement and under attack by the court of public opinion. Back then, as now, groups like NORML were fighting the good fight. 

 

And not everything I wrote back in 1993 was so dated. 

 

In my article, I wrote, “To some people, the objectives of NORML and similar organizations are impractical ‘immoral,’ not to mention unrealistic.” And I also wrote, “To others, the movement represents a new direction in political freedom and individual rights.”

 

So, even though this is my first time at bat for a cannabis lifestyle magazine, it’s not my first time embracing the culture. Marijuana—medical or otherwise—has been a constant in my life. And it’s a constant with many in Southern California. From the dispensaries and the growers, to the patients and advocates, the culture—no, our culture—has always had a place in society, demands a place in our society. Our culture will continue to have a voice, continue to inform, continue to entertain and create trends and new ways of thinking.

 

And I’m one lucky guy who is privileged to be part of this culture, to be on the front lines and embrace the people, events and industry that serve as the lifeblood of the medical marijuana community.

 

I’m back. I’m home. It was meant to be. 

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