Am just watching a re-run on C-SPAN of the 9/25/10 Colorado governor's debate. Tom Tancredo is, not surprisingly, less articulate and making less sense than either the Dem or Republican candidate.
Except for one issue.
I am appalled to find that he is the only one of the three I agree with on this one issue: legalization of marijuana.
Legalize it, regulate it, tax it.
I have decided that over the length of time that we have been involved with the war on terror, and-- I'm sorry, the war on drugs, the war has been elusive to say the best, and frankly, it's been a failure.
If anybody can show me a better way to deal with this -- if they think that we can actually prevent people from getting involved with drugs by continuing to do what we do rather than regulating it -- you know, there's a reason why you don't sell -- you don't see people trying to push booze to kids at school, and that's on-- and one thing is, there's, there's a reverse incentive there -- you get-- the risk-reward ratio is cockeyed. You get in BIG trouble for doing it, you know, selling it to a kid, on the other hand, you can sell it free to-- I mean sell it, uh, without that kind of, of fear, to an adult. So all of the incentive is to do it that way.
And, you know, we-- if-- again, if that's not right, if that's not acceptable, then just give me a, a way to deal with it, you know, so that it's not-- but, only thing I'm going to ask you is, don't say, "Let's continue to do what we're doing." It is a failure. And we have to deal with reality.
Regulate it. Tax it. It's the best way, I think, to deal with a phenomena that is overwhelmed us in so many other ways.
Like I said, he's not articulate. But I can't argue with the content of what he said, to the extent I'm able to decode it.
The responses from the other two candidates:
Dan Maes (R): The billions we spend on the war on drugs will have to be spent on social services if we legalize. If we're legalizing marijuana, why not legalize prostituting our daughters, too. I have a sociology and criminal justice degree. If we legalize marijuana we'll have cocaine cartels on the border.
John Hickenlooper (D): Pot is bad for kids. Law enforcement thinks legalization is a bad idea. Medical marijuana is what should be legal and taxed.
Rebuttals:
Well, Mr. Mayor, I can introduce you to an awful lot of people -- smart people -- who believe that, that the best way to handle this is to legalize it, and also some policemen, many policemen, and, uh, other law enforcement personnel who believe that in fact it's a lot better to deal with somebody, whether pulling them over on the side of the road or going to an abuse situation in a house, somebody who is under the influence of marijuana than booze. So all of the arguments that you've made, both of you, against this were made many, many years ago against liquor.
Maes: We're not talking about liquor, we're talking about marijuana. I opposed medical marijuana, but now we've got it. They fooled us once, let's not let them fool us again. They're going to keep pushing; we have to stop them.
Hickenlooper: No further comment.
This is going to happen. Not this year, but in this decade.