...he had to stop and take a picture of every pot shop we passed so he could send it back to his wife because she didn't believe him that it was sold openly here. hahaha

More mellow people. Seriously it is a great replacement for opioids.

We were in Colorado so we went to a pot store. Wow. Weirdest feeling ever. Back in the day, all my college friends had been locked up for a small joint or so. It's time that pot was just legal, available, and taxed like alcohol. North Carolina could use the money.

That would be a nice celebration.

Recreational weed became legal here on January 1, 2020. (Medical has been legal since 2013.)

Unfortunately, it doesn't tell the whole story, as news and as journalism. It's not even good news. The only news that's even slightly okay is that two more Republicans have decided to join the conversation in the NCGA about marijuana laws with this filing of Senate Bill 711, known as the North Carolina Compassionate Care Act.

https://www.ncleg.gov/BillLookUp/2021/S711.

The bill's only remotely news worthy item is that the two Republicans (Michael Lee and Bill Rabon) were able to get a Democrat (Paul Lowe) to sign on with them as a sponsor.

All they have done is join the mutitude of voices on the subject. Like throwing another log on the fire, as the saying goes.

I have little doubt that they are partially motivated by the free publicity. The Republicans are also starting to see bigger and bigger dollar signs and want to get a piece of the action as the bill addresses farming and sales with a smidgen of so called "compassionate conservative" sprinkled around the edges.

Republicans haven't joined on any of the other bills up until now. There have been loads of possibilities for them to do so. Several similar bills have been proposed. The Republicans never allow them to come to a vote. Most of the bills have never even been brought to committee for debate. Quashed by the Republicans.

About a week ago two other bills were introduced.The medical marijuana bill is Senate Bill 669. The full legalization bill is Senate Bill 646. Both done by Democrats.

And on April 7th, this happened... Will Doran wrote this article in the News and Observer that's a fantastic, comprehensive read on the subject. Some of the information above was gleened from it.

Your post makes good points. While I agree with much of your post about the linked story in my OP (about not telling the whole story or even being good news or good journalism), I did find that the story was at least newsworthy in two aspects, to me, and decided to share it.

One aspect being that we agree that any republicans are involved, which alone makes it newsworthy in my opinion. Having lived in NC for 30 years and watching our state's politics, this came as a shock to me. I had given up on that ever happening in this state as long as those cretins continue to hold our legislative majorities.

The other aspect that it was about offering some compassion for people in pain, which, selfishly, is very important to me personally living with pain from a spinal cord injury for which few effective prescription drug options for relief are available, but while certain strains of mj provide the best relief I have felt. So, this kind of excites me to think that there could actually be a vote on such a bill in my state, even though (sadly) I have my doubts it would pass. Still, I'm glad to see it's gaining some momentum, and wanted to share that with others who may also benefit from the pain relief mj can provide.

I live in NC and know there have been efforts to legalize for many years, but they never made it out of committee.

I'm skeptical that they will have the votes to approve it. We still have a rethug run state legislature and while it's promising the bill is bipartisan it doesn't ensure that the majority of rethugs will support it.

I live in hope. I used to live in the Northeast.