Lola Sheldon-Galloway, incumbent candidate for HD 22, is once again making wildly inaccurate claims. This time it’s about marijuana. Galloway is urging the County Commission to send recreational marijuana use to the ballot this November. Sheldon-Galloway made unsubstantiated claims that providers could drain the power grid and increase crime on the frontage road. Forgive me if I am suspicious that Lola knows anything about 1) growing weed 2) the power grid and 3) local crime data. Remember, this is the woman who claimed that a woman couldn’t get pregnant from rape, and also sponsored the 20 week abortion ban. She also believes the best approach for addiction is to put people in jail longer.
               Lola’s lies about marijuana are no surprise. These claims are nothing new. Many Great Falls conservatives continue to treat marijuana as a moral issue while ignoring current medical and scientific understanding. Marijuana-phobia (a term I just invented) is based on ideas that have been long disproven.  Whereas Sheldon-Galloway may want you to believe that a single reefer cigarette will ruin your life, that view doesn’t mesh with the current culture.
               We all know a ton of people that smoke weed. Your doctor. Your lawyer. Maybe not your dentist, but he probably should. Just like we know people who drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes. If you don’t enjoy, then you can skip the circle. But as adults, we can choose our legal recreational activities, and we already did. 21,747 people voted YES and 17,986 people voted No. The “ayes” have it. Recreational marijuana is legal. We literally already voted for it.
               There is absolutely no reason to send the question of recreational marijuana back to the ballot. Lola being afraid that the poors will come too near her Sun Prairie mansion is not justification to ignore the will of the voters. We’ve already spoken. We’re already smoking.  Rather than waste tax dollars on this conservative temper tantrum, we should be asking our city why the hell they’re leaving a 3% option tax on the table.  The party of “fiscal responsibility” needs to update their thinking and quit wasting our money.