GREENSBORO, N.C.—
For Jean Marlowe and Harold Watts, support from Greensboro city leaders concerning the legalization of marijuana as a medical drug is expected to go a long way."We're hoping that as Greensboro is kind of in the center of the state, that it will spread from there ...going into Mecklenburg (county), into Raleigh, so we're going to start getting support all over the state for this," explained Marlowe, who serves as the executive director for the North Carolina Cannabis Patients Network.
Tuesday afternoon, the Greensboro City Council was expected to approve a resolution to establish a study committee in the General Assembly that will take a look at legalizing medical marijuana in North Carolina. According to the Working to Reform Marijuana Laws advocacy group, four states have enacted medical marijuana laws, and eight have passed some sort of initiative.
For Marlowe and Watts, who both use cannabis for medical conditions, changing the law in North Carolina amounts to helping people.
"These people just don't have time to wait anymore," said Watts, the Greensboro contact for the NCCPN. "We've lost a couple of patients this year, and we're losing more every year."
Watts said he's been working with state representative Earl Jones to show city councils across the state the impact medical marijuana has on patients. While the efforts have been received well in some parts of the state, in many others, it's a different story, mainly because of a fear that endorsing marijuana will have long-term negative effects.
"We honestly believe that once we enact this, through proper education to the kids through the schools, these kids will learn this is not a recreational thing. This is a medicine thing," said Watts.
Jones will soon present bills in the General Assembly in support of that study committee and the medical use of marijuana.
"It's one step closer so patients don't have to worry about this sort of thing," said Marlowe.
