In honor of Earth Month, Raleigh threw a lovely little festival on Hillsborough Street Saturday. There were vendors with the crunchiest products around, including beeswax hand cream, and organic fruit and vegetables. Amongst the hustle and earthy bustle wandered a fellow student just looking to inform people about the greatness of marijuana. 

He probably told me his name, but I am blanking at the moment. Let’s just call him Student X. What I do know is that there is an organization hosted on campus looking to inform people about the benefits of legalizing marijuana, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. I am not making this up. There is a national organization working on making this happen, and our campus happens to have a chapter. 

Anyway, Student X walks up and politely asks if I would like to hear more about the benefits of legalizing marijuana. That sounded interesting enough, so I stopped. 

Here’s what I learned:

1) North Carolina is kind of strict when it comes to marijuana. If you are caught possessing more than 0.5 ounces of the drug, you’re going to jail, and depending on the amount, it could be anywhere from one day to eight months. This is in comparison to other states, specifically Rhode Island, where it is a misdemeanor to have one kilogram (2.2 pounds) of weed. That is a felony in North Carolina. 

2) Taxpayers’ money is being spent housing marijuana users when there are other, more violent criminals. 

3) Medical marijuana can be a big help. Several videos online espouse the benefits of medical pot. One video shows kids having seizures and the effects of medical marijuana on them; it apparently worked wonders. 

4) Student X was super excited to share that the usage of marijuana in places that have it legalized has not changed since the legalization, listing countries such as Uruguay and Guatemala. This fact was probably his favorite one. I am not joking when I say his eyes just lit up. 

After all the great conversation about this debacle, I had a couple questions for Student X. It is great that usage rates haven’t changed in places of legalization but who would honestly report that they were marijuana users before the legalization of the drug? Likewise, how do the test scores of places of legalization match up to their test scores before the legalization? Student X didn’t have the facts or figures, which is sad because this could have been great for his argument.

He did, however, have a rebuttal for another major factor in the case. People are against the legalization of marijuana because they think it makes you lazy. Understandable. There is research that shows that the THC in marijuana relaxes the neurotransmitters in your brain in order to reach that tranquil and “high” feeling. Student X combats this argument by telling people that he is an engineering student at NC State while also being pro-legalization. There are still some holes in his response to the issue, but it does show that you can be a student while being pro-weed. Whether you’re a good student or not is another issue. 

As for the medical marijuana argument, I had to fact check the information given, and I did come to find that North Carolina attempted to make medical marijuana more readily available for patients in need with HB 78. It was rejected. (Are you picturing that bill falling down the steps from “Schoolhouse Rock”? I am.) The reason that NORML is reaching out to students on campus is to spread the word about the benefits of medical marijuana and the fact that North Carolina is one of the states that does not have it readily available for patients. That was interesting to hear because, in my ignorant mind, I thought that medical marijuana was just a thing. It was just there and ready for people who needed it whenever. Not the case, though. 

NORML is working on getting around to others in order to make a change in North Carolina legislation. Godspeed, guys. Regardless, the organization’s ultimate goal at the festival was to inform people about the benefits of legalizing, and that they did. My brain is just exploding with information about weed when it should be filled with physics for my test today. Thanks, Student X.