Kinky Favors Legalizing Marijuana

In an interview with the Associated Press Tuesday, Kinky Friedman, independent candidate for Texas governor, said he is in favor of legalizing the possession of marijuana. He said he wanted to keep non-violent marijuana users out of the prison system. He also said he would push to have those in prison for marijuana to be released. Kinky thinks this prison bedspace should be used for violent criminals. Kinky sais, "I think that's long overdue. I think everybody knows what John McCain said is right: We've pretty well lost the war on drugs doing it the way we're doing it. Drugs are more available and cheaper than ever before. What we're doing is not working."

Kinky is absolutely right on this issue. Once again, we have filled our prisons and are discussing building more prisons. We do not need more prisons. We need to stop locking marijuana users up. Marijuana users pose no danger to the public at large, or to the user himself. In fact, both alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous to the user, and to the public. Locking up marijuana smokers just means that violent criminals will be back on the streets sooner, because of prison overcrowding.

Kinky also discussed the criticism of his speech in Houston last week. In that speech, he said he would give Houston extra money to deal with the "crackheads and thugs" who came here after Katrina and are raising Houston's crime rate [some 59 murders in Houston this year have been tied to Katrina evacuees]. Some have said that Kinky's comments were racist, and demeaning to Katrina survivors. Kinky said, "How can you possibly regret that, telling the truth? I am not a racist, I am a realist. In looking at the statistics, I know that 20% of the homicides in Houston have been committed by the element in the evacuee population. I never said what color their skin was. I never said all evacuees are crack dealers or crackheads. I'm smarter than that."

Kinky also had some other comments. Here are some of them.

On being called a flip-flopper by Perry:
"I don't mind being called a flip-flopper. I think we actually could use a flip-flopper as governor because a flip-flopper is a human being open to change, and God knows change is what we need now. We don't need a guy who is driving this train into a ditch because he stayed the course. And I mean the governor."

On the media and the legislature:
"I do not trust the media either. This is a no-brainer right here. The legislators are not the visionary leaders of Texas. We don't look for them to lead us. Right now the lobbyists are leading us. We have a lack of leadership, a vacuum. I think I could charm the pants off legislators, but I never want the legislature to lead. Can you imagine what the Ten Commandments would look like if they went through the state legislature?"

On appointing state board members:
"You clean house. You get the old farts out of there. You put a bunch of young people in and you put a bunch of people who care about Texas. It's pretty simple."

On the TAKS test and the accompanying federal money:
"It's a bad idea. It would fail Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein if we gave it to them....It's driving the good teachers out or crazy. I don't think this thing has worked out. If there's a way of getting federal money, I'd have better clout with George W. than the current governor."

On the lottery and education:
"The main thing we know is the lottery hasn't worked here in helping education. It was never our salvation. Not one kid in this rich state has gone to college with the help of the lottery."

On capital punishment:
"I would be careful killing a guy. I think there are people who need to die, but the question I've asked mostly is: When was the last time we've executed a rich man in Texas? We're working with a very imperfect system and I think we've made mistakes. I would not say if it's good enough for the jury, it's good enough for me. I'm not Susan Sarandon. I don't think every murderer is innocent. I would take these case by case."