Friday, December 24, 2010

Pat Robertson Opposes Marijuana Laws

I have never had a lot of respect for Pat Robertson of TV's 700 Club.   He is one of the most rabid of the right-wing christian fundamentalists and I never expected to ever agree with him on any issue.   I was wrong about that.   As they say, even a broken clock is right twice a day, and I find I agree with Robertson's latest pronouncement about marijuana.   Listen to what Robertson said on his TV program the other night:


"It got to be a big deal in campaigns. Lock 'em up, you know. That's the way these guys ran, and they got elected. But that wasn't the answer.
Something else we've got to recognize. We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana and the next thing they know they've got 10 years. They've got mandatory sentences and these judges just ... throw up their hands and say there's nothing we can do.
We've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes and that's one of them. I'm not exactly for the use of drugs. Don't get me wrong. But I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people.
They go into prison as youths and they come out as hardened criminals, and that's not a good thing."
If there is a hell, it has to be freezing over right now.   Who could have guessed that a nut like Pat Robertson would be talking rationally and making sense.   Compared to other drugs, even legal drugs like alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is virtually harmless.   It has never made any sense to ruin people's lives and brand them as criminals for smoking this gentle herb.
Anther thing to think about is the billions of dollars in new taxes that could be gathered by  legalizing marijuana (along the line of how alcohol is controlled) and taxing it.   In this recession, all levels of government could benefit from the taxes.   And a lot of new jobs could be created by the growing, transportation and sale of marijuana.   It just makes a lot of sense.

1 comment:

  1. holy shit...I repeat..holy shit!..
    look out for locus, plagues and raining frogs.

    ReplyDelete

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