By Eric Engle
Last week, my fiancee and I met in Charleston with the core
membership of WV NORML (West Virginia chapter of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws). The meeting was a
wonderful opportunity to meet a group of incredible and motivated
people, including former West Virginia gubernatorial and U.S. Senate
candidate, Jesse Johnson, who is now with the Mountain Party.
It all started at the monthly meeting of the Wood County
Democratic Executive Committee, where members of the Parkersburg
subchapter of WV NORML were invited by one committee member to speak.
Their presentation was quite moving, though I was not and am not in need
of being moved. I've long supported the full legalization of marijuana
nationwide.
The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 made marijuana a
Schedule 1 substance, on par with LSD and Heroine and a step higher in
severity than cocaine, a Schedule 2 controlled substance! This is and
has been blatantly ridiculous. It is long past time for marijuana to be
removed from the Controlled Substances Act altogether. The federal
government, however, is in no hurry to make this happen.
Cases like this make me happy that we have a system of federalism
wherein states can act, to a point, independently of the federal
government. As of today, four states and the District of Columbia have
legalized marijuana even for recreational use, and 25 more have allowed
for medical marijuana legalization.
West Virginia is behind the curve.
It's time we caught up. Parkersburg can and should lead the way. If we
can decriminalize weed here in Parkersburg, the way the city of
Philadelphia did in Pennsylvania, we can make such a difference in the
lives of so many West Virginians for whom marijuana is about quality of
life and handling disease, not about emulating Cheech and Chong.
As
such, I am working with WV NORML to convince the Parkersburg City
Council and the Mayor that the time to decriminalize is now! In the
Parkersburg News and Sentinel, the Mayor and Chief of Police suggested
that they were totally opposed in no uncertain terms. But these men are
public servants beholden to the people and I believe that the majority
of the people of Parkersburg disagree with them.
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