We in this state and in others have done back flips in order to monetize marijuana, either through medicine or through recreational purposes. Think about it. Any story that you have heard me do or seen on television. And, there is one in Easthampton I am doing today. More communities struggle with what to do with the issue.
You see the reason is pretty obvious. If the state or the city can tax it and make money so they can waste it on another project they are happy. Don’t let a politician tell you otherwise.
Fast forward to the current news cycle. Another child falls out of the sky. The child, in Chicopee does what a child does. He plays. Pushes on the screen and falls out. Call it bad parenting. Call it faulty construction. Call it kids being kids. It is happening this summer at an alarming rate.
15 years ago I recall sitting in meetings with then State Rep Gale Candaras. She mapped out the problem, the cost, what the push back from landlords would be. After she left the house, it was Cheryl Rivera who talked about the need for guards and a state law. Nothing materialized mainly because it was not a sexy subject and the state could not tax it.
That’s not the only issue that the state teeters on the edge of disaster. There has been a call for more safeguards to prevent people from getting on the highway in the wrong direction. I see that same thing frequently. For whatever reason it happens.
State Lawmakers wanted a study. It has been 8 months in the state legislature for them to figure out how to do it. 8 months. At worst that’s a 20 minute discussion. But that is the way they do things. Slow as molasses. Oh Rhode Island has an alarm and flash system on the books for two years now. We can’t get a study.
Lawmakers are happy to tell you what they have accomplished. What they fail to tell you is all that is left on the table that is easily done but they can’t figure out how to do it.
But, God forbid someone dies in a wrong way crash or falls from a building -- or from a bridge, then it will become a statewide issue and you will hear everyone talking about the need for change.
It’s not then. It’s now.
(Photo by Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)