Erdedy and Kate at the NA marijuana meeting — "A couple of the beginners still…"
A couple of the beginners still had the milky plastic I.D. bracelets from psych wards they’d forgotten to cut off, or else hadn’t yet gotten up the drive to do it.
Context
The psych-ward bracelets tie the NA-beginner population straight back to Kate's ward — and that second clause, not enough drive even to cut off a plastic bracelet, is depressive lassitude measured in the smallest possible unit.