cannabisnews.com: Pro-Pot Governor Debates DEA Chief





Pro-Pot Governor Debates DEA Chief
Posted by FoM on September 11, 2001 at 08:14:12 PT
By Matt Mygatt, Associated Press
Source: Dallas Morning News
Gov. Gary Johnson favors regulating marijuana – in the way that tobacco is. The head of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration says that would amount to a boon for cigarette companies. "If you like what the tobacco companies did in marketing to our teens and marketing to adults in selling their product, wait until they get a hold of marijuana cigarettes," Asa Hutchinson said Monday in a debate with Mr. Johnson. 
"If you like the lawsuits that you got going on now, wait until you see what the trial lawyers are able to do with suing the manufacturers of marijuana," Mr. Hutchinson said. But Mr. Johnson said: "I think we've clearly learned from alcohol and tobacco. I don't foresee advertising saying, 'It's cool to smoke pot.' " "I certainly don't want the government in the sale and distribution, although if the government were to get involved in the sale and distribution of marijuana, I think we would certainly have a reduction because I think they would screw it up enough," he said. Mr. Johnson said legalizing marijuana would bring new laws and new problems, but "those new laws, those new set of problems are going to be significantly less than the problems that we have today." "The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and over again, somehow expecting different results," he said. Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Johnson – both Republican baby boomers – squared off at a University of New Mexico auditorium before more than 300 people. "I have found that this issue has not divided Republicans and Democrats. There are just as many Republicans who disagree with me as Democrats," Mr. Johnson said. Mr. Johnson, a businessman, admits smoking pot in his youth; Mr. Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor and Arkansas congressman, says he never tried illegal drugs, but did drink beer. Mr. Johnson, saying the drug war "is an absolute, miserable failure," preached marijuana legalization but warned against taking drugs and drinking booze. "I believe the majority of people who smoke pot, that the majority of people that do drugs and don't do harm to anyone else have made a choice to do that and don't belong in rehab," he said. "Prohibition of drugs is doing more harm than the drugs themselves. Let's legalize marijuana. Let's adopt harm-reduction strategies for all these other drugs," Mr. Johnson said. Mr. Hutchinson said he believes the nation's drug strategy should include a strong drug treatment program, education and enforcing the laws on the books against drugs. "The law is the master teacher," he said. "I think legalization is the wrong way to go," Mr. Hutchinson said. "The right way out is to educate our young people to make the right decision, help rehabilitate those addicts that create the demand and continue our effort in law enforcement and create the risk for those people who'd traffic in poison that comes into our society," he said. But Mr. Johnson said, "There are triggers that make us quit these substances, and I'm just saying we're far better off without having that trigger be the criminal justice system." Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Author: Matt Mygatt, Associated PressPublished: September 11, 2001Copyright: 2001 The Dallas Morning News Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/ Contact: letterstoeditor dallasnews.com Related Articles & Web Sites: Justice Talkinghttp://www.justicetalking.org/Governor Gary Johnson's Home Pagehttp://www.governor.state.nm.us/ N.M. Gov. Debates Legalizing Drugs with DEA Boss http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10890.shtmlJohnson, DEA Head Debate Mondayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10869.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by Patrick on September 11, 2001 at 16:55:05 PT
sled
If you can post your tape somewhere today it would should take the edge of today's news. Peace man
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Comment #3 posted by Jose Melendez on September 11, 2001 at 16:06:20 PT:
SLED! Post the tape!
Hey Sled, Go ahead and post the recording you've got, before they spin this...If you don't have a place to post it online then email me; I'll post the audio file on narcosoft.com and email clips everywhere...jose narcosoft.com
drug war is crime - pot is for peace.
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Comment #2 posted by Sled on September 11, 2001 at 11:49:40 PT
The Debate - The Rest Of The Story
I was there. Hutch stuck with the usual line & the Gov. wiped thefloor with him. The crowd was overwhelmingly friendly toward the Gov.& reform. Drew strong applause for the Gov. & boos for Hutch. Anoccasional very light applause for Hutch. Only his agents & croniessupported him at all & there were only a few of them present.If anything, Hutch got laughed at more than anything & it wasn't allreformers there by any means. A lot of gray heads in the audience &they supported reform.Hutch stuck to the latest buzzwords, with "traffickers" his favorite.No doubt, he watched the movie & that's all that he came away with.IMHO, he didn't take the Gov. seriously prior to debate, didn't have aclue what the Gov.'s positions were, thought everyone there would befor his position, walked into a minefield, & stepped on every mine insight.He was flustered, completely bereft of knowledge of this subject,became red-faced a number of times, & blew the whole thing, so whatelse is new. The guy is way out of his league.I made a tape of the whole thing, even though they requested thateveryone turn of any recorders. I'm sure I'm not alone. With all thevideo cameras in evidence, I think a a clandestine copy should beavailable shortly.C-Span taped it for later broadcast & if they don't censor it heavily,you'll be very pleasantly surprised.Hutch got his ass kicked & then some.Live from the front.....Sled
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Comment #1 posted by Jose Melendez on September 11, 2001 at 08:28:26 PT:
Asa knows he is wrong...
"If you like what the tobacco companies did in marketing to our teens and marketing to adults in selling their product, wait until they get a hold of marijuana cigarettes" Let's explore that. 400,000 lung cancer deaths each year due to tobacco, 0 for pot...I still think they realize that MORE people would live longer if mj were legalized, that's why they are against it, because they'd then have to pay an extra 20 years per person of medical expenses, Social Security...Expose the lie. 
Prohibition is INDUSTRY, not POLICY.
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