Boy, it’s hard enough to get a drink in Utah, but legalizing medical marijuana? Well, The Salt Lake Tribune is stating the case in a series of articles on the growing medical-migration trend. It’s not that people
are moving to get high, but rather to control seizures and manage pain
from cancer and other dire health concerns. Colorado appears to be the
big beneficiary of “medical refugees” from
Utah. While it’s hard to argue that a child with uncontrollable
seizures should be denied cannabis, the Sutherland Institute’s Paul
Mero can wax eloquent on almost any “moral” issue. Mero
admits to smoking pot as a young man, but he doesn’t like the idea of
legalization and calls the whole thing juvenile. “My guess is that
reasonable and responsible people can address those situations one by
one without granting wholesale justifications for people to exercise
diminished capacities.” How? By buying it off the street?
Bridge Over Salty Waters
It’s
interesting how we treat one of the natural wonders of the world as an
unwanted stepchild. This is the Great Salt Lake—smelly, buggy,
mercurial in its flow, and home to migratory birds and a brine shrimp
industry. Union Pacific Railroad wants to build a bridge in place of a
sinking culvert—now. Even though the situation is 50 years in the
making, UP thinks it’s now an emergency. The causeway allows some
mixing of the salty north with the not-so-saline south arm, but no
studies have been done on the effects of a new bridge, and that leaves
everyone scratching their heads. Friends of the Great Salt Lake is
asking for more study and better assurances that equilibrium will be
maintained. That’s reasonable.
Schools are in the news this week, but not really in a good way. First, you have the huge failure of a $495 million bond for Jordan School District. Maybe this just underscores the public’s distrust of school administrations and their fiscal priorities, but that distrust never seems to translate to the legislature, which typically under-funds education. At any rate, Jordan needs to make its case as a fiscally responsible district. Meanwhile, the Deseret News fueled the distrust with a story on how homeschooling helps students get into college. Duh. Those are students with a parent who can homeschool, and districts are always trying to figure out how to get at that parental-involvement piece.
Twitter: @KathyBiele
About The Author
Katharine Biele
A City Weekly contributor since 1992, Katharine Biele is the informed voice behind our Hits & Misses column. When not writing, you can catch her working to empower voters and defend democracy alongside the League of Women Voters.
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