In Which I Was Quite Wrong About a Thing (Volume 1)

posted on 1/23/2019 by the Salt City Sinner

Crow! Nobody likes to eat it. For one thing, corvids are highly intelligent and social animals, and for another they taste awful (or so I’ve heard).

That said, I’m a fellow who prides myself on my ability to admit when I’m wrong, and thus I present an instance (one of many, but we’ll tackle them one at a time) when I’ve been wrong. Mostly.

The year was 2015! The newfangled “jazz music” craze was ripping up the airwaves, and women were wearing short skirts and voting! In actuality, 2015 only feels like 100 years ago, due to the horrific time distortion field we’ve been living in recently. Here’s what I had to say then about Senator Mark Madsen’s attempts to decriminalize the devil’s lettuce for medical use:

 I will not argue for a single second that [2015’s failed legalization effort] isn't progress – it is. And Senator Mark Madsen's bill regarding medical marijuana only failed by a single vote. 

…All of that aside, I suspect that optimism regarding the future of medical pot in Utah may be misplaced based on the debacle surrounding Governor Herbert's Healthy Utah initiative.

Now – in retrospect, this observation is interesting. If you’ll recall, the Healthy Utah Initiative was an attempt by Governor Gary Herbert (a conservative by any measure, but a moderate in Utah) to compromise on Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion – it failed hideously, despite being a compromise that was supported by a big majority of Utahns.

Why is that interesting? Because BOTH Medicaid expansion AND medical cannabis passed in Utah in 2018 – but not thanks to the legislature, goodness no, thanks to ballot initiatives pushed forward by the unwashed and unruly masses.

I can occasionally see around corners in politics. It’s because politics is what I do instead of filling my life with love or friendship or happiness like the rest of you suckers. Often, however, there’s an x-factor that I don’t see in advance of how things shake out. In this case, I didn’t predict the feistiness or independence of Utahns. I didn’t think that my fellow Beehive State residents would think or act in a manner that the Republican Party and the Mormon Church didn’t agree with. (Please forgive my low opinion of the independent faculties of Utahns – I am a product of my upbringing, which is to say, a product of Davis County.)

Was I wrong about medical cannabis in Utah? Yes and no.

Yes, in that Prop 2 passed. No in that the Utah Legislature then immediately intervened to prevent Prop 2 from being implemented -- a process that, by the way, involved the most egregious violation of separation of church and state that I’ve seen in my entire life. Furthermore they now seempoised to shut out even the possibility of future citizens’ initiatives like these from seeing the light of day.

So – moving forward, I promise to have a modicum more faith in the fine citizens of Utah.

The Legislature, on the other hand, is even more stupid, evil, and cruel than I could have imagined.