Colorado voters approved a constitutional amendment in 2000 that allows people with cancer, glaucoma, HIV, AIDS, muscle spasms, severe pain, severe nausea and other medical conditions to use marijuana. People must obtain a medical marijuana registry card from a licensed Colorado doctor.
Colorado’s medical marijuana industry blossomed this year. As the Denver Post reported this week, tens of thousands of patients applied for medical-marijuana cards in the past six months. And, dispensaries, shops where patients can legally purchase marijuana, are burgeoning in municipalities across the state.
That’s causing municipal governments headaches. Selling medical-marijuana through storefronts is not a private matter. It is a public issue. And, different people hold decidedly different views about what is okay and what’s not. What’s the underlying reason for people’s different views? They hold different values.
Phillip Boyle, a principal with Leading and Governing Associates, provides useful frameworks for thinking about ways to make decisions about public problems like dispensing medical marijuana.
Here are a few excerpts an article he wrote in 2001.
| Public problems involve facts and values. People may know many facts about public problems but they solve public problems on the basis of their values. When they argue about how best to solve a public problem, they are likely to select the facts that support their values. Both sides cite facts to support their arguments.
Public problems involve four principal values: liberty, equality, community, and prosperity. These values are present in many documents including the Declaration of Independence, the Constitutions of the United States and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Americans believe strongly in these values, but they often disagree about which value is more important and how best to achieve that value. When people argue about public problems, they are really arguing about whether they want more liberty, more equality, more community (which includes safety and security), or more prosperity. Americans would like to have as much liberty, equality, community and prosperity as possible. But, because having more of one value means having less of another, public problems involve a tension between two or more of these values. |
People often lament the state of public discourse in America. Our arguments seem to becoming more heated and less constructive. Dr. Boyle’s provides useful insights to understand why this conflict exists and how we can work through it.
I have attended countless public meetings in which someone says, “We should decide this based on facts, not emotions!” That sounds like a good idea. People typically nod, or even cheer, in agreement. But, emotions are typically roused when we feel our values are being threatened. And, as Dr. Boyle suggests, we all can find facts to back up our values.
We need to do a better job of understanding one another’s values. Liberty, equality, community and prosperity are all American values. When people fight to promote or protect one of these values, they honor the legacy of our Founding Fathers and generations of patriots.
We must be careful not to demonize people who place greater weight on the value of liberty over equality. The reverse is true, too. People who place greater emphasis on equality over liberty are also fighting for an American value.
Next time someone says something that makes you mad, take a deep breath and consider – or better yet ask – what American value is this person trying to promote or protect?
Public decisions will always be difficult when public values are at odds. But, if we make more effort to understand one another’s values rather than the facts, perhaps we can work through issues without demonizing each other.
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Picture Credits: Statue of Liberty by Flickr user Peter Crump.