McCain’s VP Pick Acknowledged Marijuana Use
Noting that his just-announced vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has acknowledged having smoked marijuana, MPP is urging Sen. John McCain to respect states’ rights to set their own marijuana policies if he is elected president.
On Aug. 6, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported:
Palin said she has smoked marijuana — remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law — but says she didn’t like it and doesn’t smoke it now.
 ‘I can’t claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled.’
The paper quoted Palin as saying she opposed legalization of marijuana because of the “message” that would be sent to her children.
“Governor Palin is one of many millions of Americans who have used marijuana and gone on to live productive, wildly successful lives,” said MPP executive director Rob Kampia said in a statement released a little while ago. “That she used marijuana is no big deal, but what is a big deal is that she thinks that the 100 million Americans who have used marijuana, including herself, belong in jail. That wouldn’t be good for her kids.
“Perhaps most importantly, Alaska is one of 12 states that allow the medical use of marijuana, and one in five Americans currently live in those states. The heavy hand of the federal government has trampled state authority and tried to interfere with the implementation of these state-level medical marijuana laws. The GOP ticket should embrace the time-honored Republican principle of local control by promising to end the federal government’s war on sensible medical marijuana laws in both red and blue states.”
Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington have medical marijuana laws. New Mexico’s is the latest, passed by the Legislature last year. Montana’s medical marijuana law appeared on the November 2004 ballot, receiving 62 percent of the vote, exceeding George W. Bush’s total of 59 percent.
Early in the presidential campaign, McCain seemed to support a states’ rights position on medical marijuana, but later backed away from this and became overtly hostile, receiving an “F” grade from Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana.
Tagged with: marijuana and McCain and Medical Marijuana by the author
8 comments
[...] McCain’s VP Pick Acknowledged Marijuana Use [...]
Thanks for the post. Re-posted in today’s effort at Kos.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/2/102241/2674/565/583195
I just sent a message to MADD noting that the 15% decline in underage drunk driving deaths is because it is much easier for the underage “experimenter and curious type kid” to get pot than it is alcohol so they simply switched. How much highway carnage due to “LEGAL ALCOHOL” could we stop if we simply legalized marijuana, taxed and regulated it just like alcoholic beverages? As a professional addictions futurist, I project that our nation will have to do just that in 7 years. Alcohol misuse is under attack by the undercover federal agencies right now. Just the same way as the “Nicotine Addiction Project” was developed 15 years ago. We have reduced our national economic dependence on tobacco products for jobs and revenue to 42% of what it was when the project was started. Why are they doing this? Because internationally, pharmacological treatment and ultimately genetic cures will arrive and right now, there is an estimated $800 billion per year in GDP that can be tied to the misuse of psychoactive chemicals. $270 billion in the Departments of Corrections alone, across our nation. Something to think about. Perhaps a strategy worth looking into. Why fight the “Feds” when you can get them to help, along with the new administration?
I am slow my leaders say I am not smart enough after 60 years on this planet to make my own decisions. So let me see if I have this straight? If she feels marijuana users should be put in jail. She is an admitted marijuana user, should she not be put in jail? If a bank robber publicly admitted to robbing a bank you can bet the FEDs would lock that person up! I don’t think Palin meant she should go to jail she thinks we should have the same old double system. If it is a rich person on Oxycodine its ok LEGAL. But if you are poor or black and smoke a weed you go to jail ILLEGAL. If you are running for VP you have no laws you are above the law. Too bad we still have to live with the laws you are above! I hope one of her kids gets caught with 28.5 grams and is sent to federal prison for 20 years to be raped and scarred for life. But we know that will never happen someone would get paid off big time! I hear what you are saying Palin.
A stupid old man..
No it would be my son spending the 20 years in jail for what? So your PAC check is covered? How long do you think we are going to put up with this double standard? My opinion not much longer!
Yep! You ARE a stupid old man!
In Alaska, where she smoked it, Pot is legal. Now if she said she was smoking it in the Lincoln Bedroom at the White House, then Yes, It would be Illegal.
What You should be upset about is the Fact that McKrazy’s wife used (Abused??) her influence with her ‘Charity’ to score pain killers for her addiction. Well, she didn’t goto jail, get any kind of Record, Didn’t get her children taken away for putting them into harms way while she went and got high… She just quietly went to rehab.
Know what your talking about buddy.
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