Colorado state Sen. Vicki Marble
A story from a fake news website has apparently led the Colorado Republican state senator who
thinks fried chicken causes black and Latino poverty to
file a bill prohibiting the use of food stamps or other government aid at marijuana dispensaries, even to purchase things that could be legally obtained elsewhere with the public assistance. (Food stamps can only be used to buy food, remember.)
Last week, the satirical National Report posted a fake story entitled “Colorado Pot Shop Accepting Food Stamps – Taxpayer Funded Marijuana for Welfare Recipients.” Other stories on the site include equally false items such as “Colorado Pot Shop Attempts To Disarm Citizens With ‘Weed for Guns’ Buyback Program,” “How Obama’s EPA Is Taking Away Your 2nd Amendment,” and “U.S. Caves to Iran In Nuclear Deal. Sharia Law Now to be Taught in U.S. Universities. Qurans to be Placed in Motel Rooms.” A conservative news site picked up the story, apparently duped. The Douglas County Republican Committee, also apparently believing the story real, linked to the report on its Twitter feed last Tuesday.
A day later, [state Sen. Vicki] Marble’s bill was filed in the state Senate. Marble did not immediately respond to a ThinkProgress inquiry about her rationale, but two of her co-sponsors did. Rep. Dan Nordberg (R) observed that while “To my knowledge, there have been no incidences at marijuana establishments in the two weeks they’ve been open,” the bill is “consistent with the intent of Amendment 64, which is to ‘regulate marijuana like alcohol.’” Since the prohibition applies to liquor stores, he notes, it should thus also apply to marijuana vendors.
Regulating marijuana like alcohol is all fine and good—but it's the timing that gets you there, guys. Introduce a bill addressing a fake story your party has been pushing, and it's gonna look a lot like you're legislating according to fake news. The timing gets them, along with the lead involvement of Vicki Marble, who, to emphasize, has some very deep thoughts about the relationship between black life expectancy, poverty, and fried chicken and BBQ. Also the state House co-sponsorship of another legislator who brought a box of Popeye's fried chicken to a committee hearing following Marble's remarks.
Okay, the timing, the lead involvement of Vicki "Mexican immigrants should eat more vegetables" Marble and her friend Lori "Popeye's" Sain, and the fact that some right-wing bat signal seems to have gone out recently letting Republicans know it's time to freak out about public assistance that isn't actually being spent at sinful businesses: Maine Gov. Paul LePage recently got his knickers in a twist over welfare benefits being spent at strip clubs even though his state had already banned the nearly nonexistent practice. When loony Republicans in multiple states start talking about the threat of something that isn't happening, always suspect the bat signal.
