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There are times I believe that the marijuana legalization fanatics who follow my business social platform would get mad if an international criminal tribunal found a malignant and malevolent dictator in possession of a brick of weed guilty.

Never mind the mass graves, the summary executions or the genocide, through the tunnel vision of their skunk-scented, purple haze glasses they would only focus on the weed and not the crimes against humanity.

Please understand that for the life of this website, I have been an advocate for the legalization of marijuana in the state of North Carolina but instead of seeing the issue through the green lenses I look at it in black and white and what the laws currently are — not what I wish them to be.

That’s why I got a chuckle the other day when I ran a story about a guy who was involved in a chase on the interstate and just so happened to be throwing marijuana from the vehicle, an act, which, according to the laws of the state of North Carolina, is littering.

The comment on our social platform was, and I quote, “Oh yes, the horrible terrible weed again. Thank heavens.”

The comment received two heart emojis and two laughing emojis and forgive me, commenter, for stepping on your toes, but the point of the story wasn’t even the weed. 

The dude could have been throwing cases of Pampers or cases of Grey Goose from the vehicle but it was weed.

And again, the point of the story wasn’t even the weed, it was several other charges levied by the North Carolina State Highway Patrol that got to the heart of the matter — felony flee to elude arrest, speeding, driving while license revoked, littering, open container, and reckless driving with wanton disregard.

Perhaps I erred in the headline I chose to use but sometimes when you’re doing these things on the fly you use the first thing that pops into your head. I will admit, however, the bags of weed made for better lead art than the standing logos I often use, which is why I decided to use it again for this column.

But when the smoke that’s swirling around your head clears and you’ve come off your high after devouring a bag of Cheetos, through sober eyes you should re-read the story to completion and you will see the point of it more clearly:

1 - Felony flee to elude or running from the cops

2 - Speeding, you know going above the posted speed limit, which is known to be the cause of many crashes and the loss of lives

3 - Driving while license revoked, which means this “won’t” this guy’s first rodeo

4 - Littering, you know, throwing stuff out of you car instead of saving it for later to put in your trash can

5 - Open container, which means open container of alcohol which means at some point another impairing substance had been consumed

6- Reckless driving with wanton disregard, the kicker, the point of the whole thing, not the weed, the fact that he was driving without regard to the safety of others on an already-revoked license

As much as I have lobbied in the past and will continue to lobby for legalization in the future, it doesn’t make it right to be throwing weed, fast food bags, cigarette butts or anything else from your vehicle while driving like a bat out of H-E-Double Hockey Sticks or even if you’re just out for a leisurely afternoon or evening drive.

And I will argue that until weed is legal in North Carolina the highway patrol did their due diligence by turning over the marijuana to the sheriff’s office for further charges because despite your desire to have it legalized here — it’s not.

I’ve already covered two traffic fatalities this week, one which especially showed a wanton disregard for the safety of others and ended in tragedy.

If someone had swerved, crashed and died while trying to avoid your flying precious bags of weed, would you still be singing the same tune?

Let’s hope not but sometimes I feel like some of you would get rip-roaring mad if that malevolent dictator who committed atrocities after atrocities were also found to be in possession of a brick of weed as you read through your skunk-scented and purple haze-colored glasses — Lance Martin