On May 30, 2023, at a meeting of the North Carolina House Health Committee on our medical marijuana legalization bill, SB3, around 20 people signed up to speak, but the Committee decided to hear from only three.
Reluctance to hear at length from all comers among the general public on marijuana is understandable. Some of us who take an interest in the issue are vehement and emotional. Some of us are “wacktivists.”
In the mid 2010s, I served as co-chair of the Regulatory and Tax Working Group of the California Blue Ribbon Commission on marijuana legalization to make recommendations for an eventual ballot initiative.
That Commission held open hearings in various spots in California. At a video-recorded forum at Fresno State University, a Commission co-chair, Abdi Soltani from the California ACLU, a big, muscular fellow, opened the floor up to the general public after panelists had spoken.
Now Abdi carried around a wireless microphone, which he gripped firmly and held in front of recognized speakers from the public. As impassioned speakers got carried away and tried to seize the microphone, Abdi held on. When they started repeating themselves, he nodded politely and gently took the microphone away. My recollection is that everyone who wanted to speak got to.
Without such safeguards, a public meeting on marijuana laws would probably get either heated or boring. Or both. So I don’t criticize the House Health Committee for not hearing out speakers – even me. I can email in my comments.
(I’m at the left edge of that image, but I’m trying to dodge any blame for the troubles with marijuana legalization in California today. I’m just a technician who had very little if any influence, which I would pin on a huge overhang of illegal operators from decades of bootlegging, and especially on lack of law enforcement. One Californian says, “California doesn’t arrest people for daylight robbery. They’re not going to arrest anyone for pot.”)
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