North Carolina House kills medical marijuana bill because too many people were calling them about it

If it was tobacco, it would have been fine. You would think legislators in North Carolina would be more open about these things, but the House Rules Committee in the state has hurriedly nixed a bill (or any other bill, this year) legalizing medical marijuana. Why the hurry to kill it?

It is somewhat unusual to give a measure an unfavorable report. Typically, bills that won't pass merely sit in committee unheard and untended.

"We did it to be done with it, so people could move on for the session," said Rep. Paul "Skip" Stam, R-Wake. He said lawmakers we're being "harassed" with phone calls and emails about medical marijuana.

The committee listened to public comments about the bill for about 20 minutes before voting.

So Skip and others were being "harassed" by cancer patients and other medical marijuana advocates, apparently, and I can't imagine a more intimidating group. Anyway, now that they took a whole 20 minutes to decide the issue, that should be the end of that. Problem solved.