An NC lawmaker wants his fellow Democrats to talk about weed. His ad went viral | Opinion

Legalizing marijuana is one of those rare issues that resonates with voters across the political spectrum. That’s why North Carolina Sen. Graig Meyer just doesn’t understand why so many of his fellow Democrats aren’t talking about it.

Meyer, who represents Orange, Caswell and Person counties, shared an ad on social media ahead of 4/20 that he hoped would underscore the importance of reforming the state’s marijuana laws. The ad quickly went viral, receiving more than 4 million views in just a few days.

The 30-second ad shows a Black man and a white man smoking marijuana on either side of a split screen. Both men are pulled over by police. The white man gets off with a warning, but the Black man is arrested and taken to jail. It’s short, simple and effective.

But the target audience for the ad wasn’t necessarily the voters, or politicians on the other side of the aisle. It was a nudge to members of his own party, who he hoped would feel moved to act after watching it.

“Democrats are afraid to talk openly about support for legalizing marijuana,” Meyer told me. “Even though I think every Democrat that I can think of in the legislature would vote to legalize — I don’t think we have anyone who’s in opposition of legalization — people don’t want to talk about it.”

But no one has given a clear reason why they think they can’t talk about it, Meyer said. And when he asked colleagues to repost his ad on social media, they responded with things like, “Oh, I wish I could in my district.” Yet marijuana is not a particularly divisive issue — a 2023 Gallup poll found that 70% of U.S. adults believe marijuana use should be legal.

Meyer and two of his Democratic colleagues have sponsored a bill in the legislature titled the “Marijuana Justice and Reinvestment Act.” By legalizing, regulating and taxing marijuana, North Carolina could then reinvest the revenue into communities that have been harmed by the war on drugs, Meyer said.

The Governor’s Task Force on Racial Equity in Criminal Justice, chaired by N.C. Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls and Attorney General Josh Stein, recommended in 2020 that North Carolina decriminalize simple possession and further study potential legalization of marijuana. Their report noted that Black offenders comprise a disproportionate number of marijuana convictions despite using marijuana at similar rates. Stein said in a statement at the time that the state should “start having real conversations about a safe, measured, public health approach to potentially legalizing marijuana.”

But Meyer doesn’t think those conversations are happening enough, at least not to the extent that they should. In his eyes, marijuana should be a core issue for Democrats, especially if they want to prove themselves to be leaders on racial justice.

“I think they are hesitant to say what they want to do as a core part of their message, even though I know they will do the right thing when we get enough power to be able to do it,” Meyer said. “I just feel like amplifying this message will help us gain the power that we need to pass it.”

Who’s to say that it won’t? After years of being stuck in the minority, North Carolina Democrats could benefit from a messaging refresh, because playing it safe doesn’t seem to be working. Marijuana is an issue that’s especially relevant to both Black voters and younger voters — two constituencies that Democrats often struggle to mobilize at the polls.

“We’ve used the same messaging for the last 10 years to try to beat Republican incumbents, and we haven’t gotten to the level of political power yet that we want to get,” Meyer said. “So why not try some new things? Why not show that it’s not just the same old same old that we’re leading towards a future that some people want to get on board for?”