Plain Talk: Proponent and opponent debate North Dakota's Measure 5 legalization of marijuana

MINOT — Steve Bakken is the former mayor of Bismarck, and the chair of the committee backing Measure 5, which seeks to legalize recreational marijuana in North Dakota.

Pat Finken is a longtime advertising professional and political activist. He’s a part of the coalition opposing Measure 5.

These gentlemen came together on Plain Talk to make their respective cases. The contrasts in their arguments, as you might expect, were sharp.

Bakken says Measure 5 is a “very conservative” legalization that gives state officials plenty of latitude to regulate lawful use of the drug. The measure “gives all the power to the state,” he said.

But Finken painted the measure as exacerbating North Dakota’s existing problems with substance abuse. “The marijuana of today is not safe,” he said. “It’s 10 times more powerful” than what Americans may have been smoking in past decades. He rejected the argument that marijuana legalization is inevitable, saying that even if North Dakota were the last state in the union without legal access for recreational use, he wouldn’t mind it.

“I’m perfectly content for North Dakota to remain an island,” he said.

Bakken, for his part, argued that Finken’s alarmism is out of date. “That reefer madness mentality goes back to the 50s.”

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