Over the course of the years, Marijuana in Memphis has seen many changes from the decriminalization of the leaf to the House of Representatives approved a bill that would block the decriminalization laws that were approved in Nashville and Memphis.
This was due to the inconsistency with penalties in the state statues having to deal with drug control. Yet, the law was not even made for over a year till the legislation made an adjustment to block it.
With the legislation making that move many Memphian felt like the move was planned in since the beginning of the law beginning decriminalized. I sat down to talk to London Page, who’s a Cannabis activist ,to talk about the recent changes of the law and how she and many others felt when they heard the news
When you heard that the Memphis council decriminalized Marijuana, how was your feelings towards the council and what did you make of it?
London Page: I didn’t understand it at first but I knew they were trying to make a change in the community and the city. I felt like it was the start of something that the city would take advantage of in a good way. I thought the council was thinking about the decision before they had announced because they knew it would be a huge up-roar about it.
Did you expect for the law to be blocked by House of Representatives especially within a year of the law being enforced?
It was too good to be true, like I said earlier I didn’t understand it but it seemed to good to be true. A Memphis law with a small fine for any weed or marijuana less than an ounce sounds a little bit too right so the House had to make sure they fix that adjustment to the law. The timing was a bit weird because you could’ve gave the state some more time to adjust to the new law but I think they didn’t want to change that law in the first place.
With the House approving this bill, do you think they will ever go back to the ordinance that was passed a year ago?
I think they will change the bill in due time, but it will not be anytime soon because they don’t want to be placed in a bad position with the law. The house doesn’t like drugs led alone marijuana. The image of marijuana makes them feel some type of way. It will be back maybe in three or four years but it will not be this year or next year.
How do you feel about other states legalizing marijuana?
It’s amazing and very great for our country because marijuana isn’t something that would hurt the community. The House of Representatives in Tennessee thinks that the community would be affected in a negative way, but what these other states do is that they realize that this is a plant that harm absolutely no one at all. The states that legalized marijuana have made great changes to their city as a whole and that something I guess Tennessee doesn’t want to do.
Do you think TN will ever legalize marijuana?
No but maybe when I’m long gone because Tennessee doesn’t even want to decriminalize weed at all so legalizing it would be a miracle because they don’t want deal with the so-called backfire from that action if it happened. If it did become legal the state would be moving in the right direction to make this an great state and it would give us more residents from outside the state as well.
Do you think the House made a bad decision?
Of course, This was a move made based off just the image of marijuana being close to legal and they didn’t like that or want that. It’s crazy that they would think that but like I said before I was too good to be true and that something the House need to change as soon as possible and they did. They never liked marijuana from the first place, that’s why many people feel like it was just a setup to block that law.
Seametrus Battle Jr. 