Things can get mighty testy in Laguna Woods, the town formerly known as Leisure World in polite corners and Seizure World in less polite ones. A recent Residents Voice meeting in Clubhouse Five deginerated into a physical assault, according to one United Mutual Board of Directors candidate. It brings to mind the testy clashes Jerry's dad had with his Florida retirement community board colleagues on Seinfeld.
Fortunately, as Janet Whitcomb reports in the Register-owned Laguna Woods Globe, a way to harsh everyone's mellow may be on the way. On July 10, what resident Dr. Bill Schwied would later describe as “an historic meeting” was held. The topic: “A Discussion on Medical Cannabis.”
Interest was keen. Schwied's Laguna Woods for
Medical Cannabis, which spreads the word about the medicinal benefits of marijuana, drew only 10 elderlies to his first meeting, so chairs were optimistically set up for 30 at the follow-up in the Community Center's Elm Room. The turnout was so large–70 old fogies–that it forced a move into the Board
Room nearby, something that was announced with a sign posted at the Elm
Room entrance informing “Mary Jane” had relocated.
The notion was so well received that there's now talk of forming a Laguna Woods collective where members can grow their own. Lawrence Welk space jams, black-light Matlock posters and Moon Pies stacked a mile high in the cafeteria can't be far behind.
A side benefit of widespread use would be a kinder, gentler retirement
community. Or at least hotheads would forget what got
their Depends in a bunch and “just go with it, man.” If the devil's weed does catch fire at Laguna Woods, goodbye Residents Voice, hello Residents Drum Circle.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.