The recent violent arrest of two people smoking what might have been a legal version of cannabis illustrates the confusion over North Carolina’s marijuana laws. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says it’s time for some clarity.
There’s more than one thing worth talking about in the case of two Charlotteans who were arrested — and one of them punched — for smoking what might have been a legal version of weed.
One of the things worth talking about is police violence. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer Vincent Pistone hit a woman named Christina Pierre 17 times — seven times with his knee and 10 times with his fists — while trying to arrest her at a bus stop. A second officer punched her in the face. Pistone has now been suspended for 40 hours. Police Chief Johnny Jennings said the first three times Pistone hit Pierre were justified, but the other 14 were not.
Videos from the arrests show how fast the whole thing escalated. Pierre and her companion, Anthony Lee, tell an officer they bought their joint at a smoke shop. Despite that, within seconds, they’re being arrested, and not long after that, Pierre is being pummeled. The Mecklenburg County district attorney dropped the charges against Pierre and Lee. And in a post-George Floyd world, when police should be looking to deescalate things every chance they get, it feels like Pistone got off light.
But there’s another issue here, one that is the state of North Carolina’s fault: the joint Pierre and her friend were smoking might very well have been legal.
As WFAE’s Steve Harrison has extensively reported, smoke shops all over the state are selling something called THC-A, a hemp strain that has similar effects to regular weed. In fact, when it’s burned it converts to the regular THC, known as Delta 9. In North Carolina, THC-A is a legal high. And it’s so close to illegal marijuana that even crime labs have a hard time telling the difference, much less cops on the street.
So the state has put both users and police officers in a bad spot. It’s impossible for the cops to know whether what somebody is smoking is illegal. And it’s impossible for users to prove that what they’re smoking is legal.
The state has to — pardon the expression and the pun — act or get off the pot.
One way to go would be to outlaw THC-A, as well as any other offshoots and derivatives that officials know about. That would bring some clarity to the street, but it would also criminalize a lot of behavior that seems awfully minor in the grand scheme of things. The district attorney’s office has already said it won’t prosecute minor drug offenses.
The other route, as reggae legend Peter Tosh once said, is: Legalize it.
Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have already legalized pot for recreational use. Those states can collect taxes from pot growers and sellers, and regulate sales to make things safer for users. Pot has its dangers, just like all recreational drugs, up to and including alcohol. But millions of Americans smoke or vape or chew on a gummy now and then. It’s not heroin or opioids.
Legal and well-regulated weed has to make more sense than the baffling laws North Carolina has now. And among its many benefits, it will give our police officers better things to do.
Tommy Tomlinson’s On My Mind column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section below. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org.
