- Chad Christopher Rediker
Educating Councilman Goes Well

TANSTAAFL Solutions has been working on educating lawmakers about cannabis and today I had the pleasure of discussing cannabis reform with Metro Councilman Kevin Kramer at City Hall. I reached out to Councilman Kramer not only because he represents my district but because he voted against a cannabis resolution many months ago. I was surprised to hear what he had to say. He agreed in general to a person's right to use cannabis on a constitutional level and was aware of the economic impact it could create for our region. His main point of concern is that cannabis is still classified as a schedule 1 drug and until that gets figured out he doesn't want to bring an untamed industry to the city until the city is prepared for it. He is also adamant that he is a councilman for the city of Louisville and shouldn't pushed into telling higher levels of government what to do. His concern is for the city yet our city gets it's power from the state and no resolution or ordinance will change that from a city level. He stated change for Kentucky needs to start with the declassification of cannabis on a federal level. I respect what he had to say and understood his point of view. But I was not there to change his mind on this snowy day, I wanted to plant the seed of information into his head so when the time does come for cannabis reform in KY that we have educated lawmakers making good decisions about how to roll out cannabis in a responsible way. I left him a small packet of articles, infographs and research studies. He said it was his first real information on cannabis and I asked him to just honestly read it. When it comes to local cannabis reform we are dead in the water. Our state's laws are against us. I believe we need to work on educating our state representatives and senators along with Yarmuth and Paul and start organizing email campaigns toward these politicians at the moment. That's what I'm gonna do and I hope others get involved, if not with cannabis reform, with something that makes life better. TANSTAAFL