Criminalizing marijuana unfairly hurt many. It’s time for NC to legalize it.

A little more than 30 years ago I was working for a Los Angeles newspaper and went to police headquarters to apply for a press pass. The application included one of those ‘check the box’ questions, asking if I had ever been arrested for anything more serious than a traffic violation.

In fact, I had been arrested years before for felony drug trafficking, a crime I was not guilty of (I have never sold drugs). Charges had been dropped, but I had been convicted of misdemeanor use of a controlled substance, marijuana. When I told the officer on duty about this, and whether I should check the box, he said not to bother, because “Nobody gives a ----.”

I bring this up because of the news that the North Carolina legislature is slowly moving towards legalizing medical marijuana in the state. This is after nearly three-quarters of all the states have already gone down this road, and one-third have legalized recreational use of the drug.

Yet despite the fact that 75% of North Carolinians support legalizing medical marijuana, and a slim majority want it fully legalized, the legislature is taking an ultra-conservative, move with the speed of a turtle approach to this issue. Not only is the medical marijuana bill under consideration one of the most restrictive in the nation, but legalization, even decriminalization, seems to be off the table.

I obviously have a personal interest in this issue, not just because smoking weed, like millions upon millions of Americans have done, has given me a criminal record. Restrictive marijuana laws have ruined the lives of thousands, particularly minorities, who are arrested for cannabis offenses nearly four times that of whites (there are nearly 700,000 cannabis-related arrests every year). How many people have been jailed for the non-violent crime of marijuana usage? We will never know, but one incarceration is one too many.

But that’s not the only reason to undo marijuana restrictions. With the tobacco industry in dire straits these days, marijuana legalization would add a valuable cash crop to North Carolina’s economy, and millions of dollars in taxes. In Colorado alone, for example, legal marijuana usage last year brought in over $307 million in potential taxable revenue. Figures like this are hard to ignore.

Sure, some people abuse the drug. As they do alcohol, opioids, fatty foods and anything else that can be ingested into our bodies. And there’s no question that any legalization needs to be carefully thought out in terms of who gets to sell it, to whom, and in what quantities.

I’m one of the lucky ones; my arrest and conviction have never affected my career. But for the thousands who haven’t been so fortunate, I think it’s about time North Carolina joins the 21st century and realize that the time for legalization has arrived. It’s never too late to correct a bad policy.