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Former New Mexico Governor Gary
Johnson Says Legalize Marijuana Now
August 18, 2010 - firedoglake.com
Gary Johnson, the Republican former governor of New Mexico, was on
MSNBC with Cenk Uygur to talk about the need to end marijuana
prohibition. He knocked it out of the park:
CENK: Governor, should we legalize it?
JOHNSON: We should legalize marijuana. I think that 90% of the drug
problem is prohibition related, not use related. And when I talk about
legalizing marijuana, it’s never going to be legal for kids to smoke
marijuana, it’s never going to be legal to smoke pot, become impaired
and get behind the wheel of a car. I think we should make the same
comparisons to alcohol that exist with marijuana, and regarding all the
other drugs I would suggest that we adopt harm reduction strategies,
which is looking at the issue first as a health issue rather than a
criminal justice issue. >Half of what we spend on law enforcement,
the courts and the prisoins is drug related. And what are we getting
for all of that? Well, we’re arresting 1.8 million people a year in
this country on drug related crime.
CENK: But governor, the issue seems to be that if the Democrats ever
proposed this, the Republicans would demagogue it, honestly. Is that
false, or is there any way that might change?
JOHNSON: No, that’s not my experience. My experience is this is not a
party issue. It’s an issue with everybody who’s in elected office.
Everyone who’s in elected office won’t touch this, it’s the Emperor
that has no clothes, and nobody wants to touch it. But I think the
people are way ahead on this. And of course it’s on the ballot in
California to legalize it this fall — control it, regulate it, tax it.
Pew Foundation estimated that the price of marijuana would drop from
$380 to $38 an ounce with a 50% tax on that. So I look at this from a
cost benefit analysis. What are we spending and what are we getting?
And of course there is the human toll involved in this. The situation
with drug abuse is that it’s always made worse because it’s criminal.
CENK: So how do we get the politicians to flip? Because you’re right,
the whole country’s getting there…California’s there, many other states
are beginning that process, but we can’t just move the politicians.
Look prohibition didn’t work for alcohol, and we realized that fairly
quickly and we changed that. Now we have this mindset that if we’re
going down the wrong path, we have to stay there. How do we change
that?
JOHNSON: You know what, I think the issue is at a tipping point. During
the last election, Massachusetts voted to decriminalize pot by a vote
of 65% to 35%. I’ve smoked marijuana, I’ve drank alcohol in my life. I
don’t do either today, but I will tell you from experience that
marijuana is safer than alcohol. Citizens of Denver got to vote on
decriminalizing marijuana on the basis of marijuana being safer than
alcohol. Six hundred thousand Denver citizens agree with me on that
one. So I think that it is at a tipping point. People are ahead of the
politicians on this one, and it’s still going to happen. It’s going to
happen. I think statistically we’re about two and a half years from 50%
of Americans actually understanding this. From my own experience, it’s
really thin ice. That with just a little bit of knowledge on this
issue, people seem to move on this issue. People seem to be embracing
this notion of “gee it’s not working, we really have to do something
different.”
CENK: It’s really good to see former politicians getting on board for
that, Republicans etc. So thank you for joining us, we really
appreciate the conversation.
JOHNSON: Well I’ll just tell you too — in office I espoused this. I
looked at it hard in 1999 and really came to this conclusion while in
office, trying to implement this change then.
Contrast that with:
Last week’s surprise statement by former Mexican President Vicente Fox
in support of “legalizing production, sales and distribution” of drugs
made big headlines around the world.
Fox’s statement, first published Saturday in his blog, went far beyond
a 2009 joint declaration by former Presidents Fernando Henrique Cardoso
of Brazil, Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and Cesar Gaviria of Colombia. In
that statement, the three former leaders questioned the effectiveness
of the U.S. war on drugs and proposed de-criminalizing possession of
marijuana for personal use.
In a separate interview, White House drug czar R. Gil Kerlikowske told
me that drug legalization is a “non-starter” in the Obama
administration.
Kerlikowske disputed the idea that alcohol prohibition drove up crime
in the United States in the 1920s, arguing that there were no reliable
crime statistics at the time.
After Obama took office, the transition team took three polls on its
website about which issues were most important to Obama’s
supporters. Marijuana reform won all three. And a recent
Colorado poll by AmericaVotes indicates that 45% of Obama 2008 “surge”
voters say they are more likely to vote if marijuana legalization is on
the ballot.
It’s always mystified me that in the wake of that kind of intense
support for legalization from one of his key electoral constituencies,
Obama has always been pretty dismissive of the whole issue.
In 2004 Obama supported decriminalization, but in early 2008 “reversed
course and declared he does not support eliminating criminal penalties
for marijuana possession and use.” In 2009 the Justice Department
issued a directive not to “waste resources” by raiding medical
marijuana dispensaries and growers that were operating legally, but
Obama’s DEA appointee Michele Leonhart has been splitting hairs right
and left and finding ways to ignore it.
It’s no mystery, however, that Gary Johnson has an eye on the 2012
presidential election. Conor Friesdorf, subbing for Andrew
Sullivan, says Johnson is “a man who deserves to be viable in
2012. And Ron Paul says that if he doesn’t run in 2012, he could see
himself supporting Johnson.
Why is it always FORMER politicians that say this shit.
If he didn't endorse it while in office then he was just a fucking liar while in office. A self serving liar seeking to keep his career going. It takes a stronger man to lay this shit down while his career is on the line.
When Gov. Johnson was in office he was very critical of the war on drugs, supported the legalization of marijuana, and reform of drug laws. He definitely is not jumping on the bandwagon now that he is out of office.
Ive skied with Gary and chatted with him a bit. Hes a down to earth bad mo-fo who knows his stuff. He pressed the issue while he was in office and im glad he is still pressing the issue.
Quote: SeekingAnswers said: Why is it always FORMER politicians that say this shit.
If he didn't endorse it while in office then he was just a fucking liar while in office. A self serving liar seeking to keep his career going. It takes a stronger man to lay this shit down while his career is on the line.
Yea, he has had the same stance from the time he was in office to current. Do some research.