The major business of the LPNC 2016 State Convention focused on approving a revised platform. The platform committee worked for two years upon the recommendation of the 2014 platform committee to conduct a comprehensive review of the document.

“The committee worked hard to accomplish this, adding some planks to be current with North Carolina issues, dropping or combining others, and adopting a uniform language structure between planks,” said Susan Hogarth, committee co-chair. “This new structure is lean, sticking to the essential issue for each plank, which will allow candidates to expand from the basics with their own policy proposals.”

by Nic Haag

We've been told for nearly a century nothing good ever comes from cannabis. It leads to sloth-like behavior in some, ‘the munchies’ in others. It even induces homicidal mania in a few, if the movie ‘Reefer Madness’ is to be believed. 

Let’s talk about the first one, sloth-like behavior. While that may be a negative for a normal person, downers or substances that slow one’s motor functions are the prescribed treatment for anxiety and attention deficit disorder.

The common prescriptions for these ailments are Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin – all powerful narcotics which have side-effects like physical dependence and memory loss. But cannabis can treat these same ailments with little to no side effects at all, possessing no risk what so ever of physical dependence.

The pizza delivery man who ran for U.S. Senate in 2014 and drew a gathering of followers with his personal “bar stool chat” YouTube videos is back. 

Sean Haugh is again the Libertarian nominee for U.S. Senate. He has already released three videos, with several more on the way. The first,“Opening Statement,” was released April 20. It covers the basic themes he'll address in the campaign.

The Libertarian Party has joined the growing list of organizations calling for the repeal of House Bill 2.

"The state has no authority to determine gender," the unanimous resolution states. HB 2 also “unduly intrudes state authority into local decision-making and unreasonably limits the ability of the citizens ... to govern themselves.”

In addition, the bill reduces individual rights because it “bans citizens from using state courts to remedy discrimination”

Nic Haag, Libertarian candidate for NC Senate 44, introduced the resolution. It was endorsed by General Assembly candidates Brad Hessel, NC Senate 15, Brian Irving, NC House 36, and Rob Rose, NC 37.

The convention was held in Raleigh last weekend.

The convention also passed a resolution calling for the repeal of the ban on counting write-in votes. The state does not count the votes for persons who haven't gathered enough petition signatures.

This “amounts to the legislature picking and choosing which votes to count, sometimes yielding suspicious results like unanimous vote tallies in our statewide elections,” the resolutions says.

Six candidates for the Libertarian presidential nomination participated in a forum Saturday. They included former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson, the party's 2012 standard-bearer.

In other business, the convention elected at-large members to the state executive committee and adopted a revised platform. It also selected delegates to the Libertarian National Convention and nominated presidential electors.

Read the resolutions here.