Marijuana Regulations
Dear Editor: Eight Stars of Gold on a Field of Pot. There you go, folks. Our new Alaska flag:
“The gold of the pipe, the taxes, too. That speedy vote, and the rush to smoke.”
Six weeks ago, Tuesday, Feb. 24, at exactly 6:31 p.m., our Assembly voted in a brand-new ordinance to our Sitka General Code. It is called “Title 7, Marijuana Regulations to regulate and tax the use, possession, manufacture and sale of marijuana as well as provide penalties for violation as defined in Chapter 7.30, Section 7.30.10 entitled ‘Public Consumption.’”
Dumb me. I thought they had hurried to pass ONLY the “public consumption” section. Weeks later I learned the WHOLE ordinance No. 2015-06A was passed in that one hurried vote. We Sitkans were supposed to cheer that we were among the first three communities to pass a “very restrictive law” addressing WHERE this drug could be used. The rest of the regulations would be addressed later. (Catch your breath, citizens. The worse is yet to come.)
Well, I was shocked, and puzzled. What is this stuff anyway? I made an appointment with Chief Schmidt to learn something about cannabis. On Feb. 27 at 10 a.m., I was met and escorted into the Chief’s office where he let me see, and smell a “bud.” Sort of sweet, but not potent, I thought. Also, I saw what a dried bush looked like, and a big bunch of bushes, drying in an “evidence” closet. Next my questions led to check a big computer screen in the open lunch area. Yes, of course, ‘‘go to the web.’’ I could learn all I need there, on the screen. But no, I couldn’t. I needed to know what the stuff smells like. Chief Schmidt lit a bud, and held it a fair distance away, so I had to lean forward to get a whiff. Phew! Now THAT was potent! Startled, I sat back, trying to make sure my vintage nose could recall the odor. I want to be a good, responsible citizen, you know. I needed to embed the memory in my aging brain, I leaned forward for a second, confirming whiff of the wafting smoke. Yes, I will remember.
Look out, kids. If I see suspicious weird behavior and get a whiff of that horrid stuff, I’m calling the crime number: 747-8980. Thank you, Chief Schmidt, for that opportunity to get a little more informed about this one drug, now “legal” in lots of new ways. Sitka has taken on a huge responsibility.
The medical, legal use of cannibus has been available for a long time. There is research and testimony on that. But the public consumption, manufacture and sale has not been researched. The social, educational and health consequences in a small, isolated, island town are not known. Colorado and Washington with their millions of people in hundreds of road linked cities and towns don’t really know yet either.
I think we goofed big time. A one- hour forum in late January and a panel of three in late March is not enough preparation to justify that rush to vote six weeks ago. Withholding the Gatti report from Sept. 23 until Feb. 4, postpone any discussion about tax responsibilities until after the marijuana vote, was a mistake.
We Sitkans must take responsibility in lots of new ways with the statewide budget crunch and the dam bonds cost, and electric bills increasing daily. We are presented with an opportunity to sharpen our awareness of what really matters in Sitka.
On March 24, I asked our Assembly a very difficult question: Was “Title 7, Marijuana Regulations” ever read publicly during the first or the second “readings” before the vote made it an official city ordinance on Feb. 24? The answer, when I asked a second time, was: “no,” it was not read.
Might we rethink that vote? It is ok to goof. We all do. We know a lot more now, including the importance of certain forms of this drug in the dying process.
I feel I was snookered into thinking Sitka had no option but proceed lickety-split into a new era.
The whole state was.
Nancy Yaw Davis, Sitka
Common Core
Dear Editor: Seems our local schools are seeking millions of dollars in new money to train their teachers how to teach reading, writing and math to the new common core standards.
You would think that having been in the business of teaching kids for hundreds of years in this nation our schools would have figured out by now how to teach reading, writing and math without having to reinvent the wheel every 10 years or so. Seems every so many years they trot out some new system of teaching kids; selling it to us by saying your kids do poorly and drop out of school because the old system of teaching just isn’t working. What they can’t say is your kids do poorly and drop out because the unions won’t let us fire all the bad teachers that can’t teach worth a hoot.
What’s been called the “Greatest Generation” that grew up in the depression, fought in World War II, then went on to create the strongest economy and middle class the world has ever known learned reading, writing and math mainly in rural one-room school houses run by PTA’s that were able to run off bad teachers.
The PTA has been replaced by union reps that meet with school officials behind closed doors where they dictate what will be taught, how it will be taught, and shield bad teachers from being found out and fired.
Every year the School Board reports the system is failing many of our kids, ever hoping some new system of teaching or testing our kids will solve the problem. We don’t need a new way to test our kids, what we need is a way to test our teachers. We have had plenty of tests that reveal our kids are not learning how to read, write and do math – isn’t it about time we had a test that revealed which teachers are not able to teach our kids how to read, write, and do math so we can get rid of them!
Common Core is just another teaching system our School Board will spend millions of dollars putting in place that will be replaced with some other new system in five or 10 years when they find it isn’t any better then the one Obama trotted out, Bush trotted out, Clinton trotted out, etc. etc. etc.
Clyde Bright, Sitka
Cemetery Spruce-Up
Dear Editor: I greatly appreciate that the Memorial Cemetery arch and the large white cross have been painted. It looks very nice. Thank you.
Alberta Hemnes, Sitka
