A Utah state senator turned over a new leaf Saturday.
Jim Dabakis (D-Salt Lake) drove to Las Vegas and tried marijuana, filming himself on Facebook outside a dispensary, KUTV reported. Dabakis said he wanted to try cannabis before Proposition 2, which would legalize medical marijuana in Utah, comes up for debate in a special legislative session, and then a vote on Nov. 6, the television station reported.
"Until this moment, I was a marijuana virgin," Dabakis wrote on Facebook. "Ending that now. At least one legislator ought to try the stuff before we change the law!"
In the video, Dabakis explains he went into the dispensary and spent $30 for edible marijuana that looked like a gummy bear. Following instructions to cut the tangerine-flavored gummy bear in half, the legislator popped it into his mouth.
“Here it goes, I am going to try it,” Dabakis said in the video.
Dabakis said there wasn’t much of a taste at first.
“I wouldn’t recommend it as sheer candy; it’s kind of bitter,” Dabakis said in the video. “I will not be bringing the rest of this to Utah, believe me.”
In an interview with KUTV on Monday, Dabakis said he was on a fact-finding mission.
“It dawned on me Wednesday on the floor of the Senate that the Legislature is going to have the final say on this medical marijuana," Dabakis said. “I thought, 'Maybe nobody on this floor has ever tried marijuana.'”
Dabakis said he supports Proposition 2 and believes if it does not pass, his fellow legislators will defeat medical marijuana legislation in Utah.
“If the people vote 'no' now, they are going to go ‘Well, the people voted 'no' so we’re not going to pass this,'" Dabakis said.
About the Author
