Nathaniel Gurien: Cannabis Nutcracker

I recently chatted with a legislator in Concord and he described what he thought was a perfectly representative example of what’s wrong with our current state government. At the beginning of his term this year, his assigned Capitol parking spot was several blocks away from the entrance to his office whereas a colleague located in another building had a similar problem.

If they swapped spots, they’d both be much more conveniently situated and agreed to do so. This should have been a simple matter, but the entrenched government bureaucracy apparently required hearings, filings, approvals and the issuing of an official authorization involving the time and efforts of both colleagues and staff. All this over two guys swapping their parking spots. While I commiserated with his observation, it pales in comparison with the much larger broken government problem in Concord of prioritizing partisan ambition over good public policy. And what transpired over the past couple weeks in Concord over the cannabis legalization issue is a classic example.