Pat Robertson: Decriminalize
Marijuana
(Yes, THAT Pat Robertson)
Politics Daily / Dec 23, 2010
David Gibson
So, California voters defeat a ballot effort to legalize
medical marijuana and now Pat Robertson, founder of the
Christian Coalition and leader of the religious right, is
advocating the repeal of criminal penalties for possessing
small quantities of pot?
Something seems wrong with this picture, but we've got
the video to prove it: On his
Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) show the other day,
Robertson was talking about his long experience in prison
ministry and the problem of locking up small-time offenders
who then cost taxpayers to feed and house them. Which led to
this monologue:
We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs
of marijuana and the next thing you know they've got 10
years -- they've got mandatory sentences and these judges,
they throw up their hand and say "What can we do? It's
mandatory sentences." We've got to take a look at what
we're considering crimes, and that's one of 'em. I mean,
I'm not exactly for the use of drugs, don't get me wrong.
But I just believe criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing
the possession of just a few ounces of pot, and that kind
of thing, I mean it's costing us a fortune, and it's
ruining young people. The young people go into prisons,
they go in as youths, and they come out as hardened
criminals, and it's not a good thing.
![Pat Robertson]()
Drug reformers are shocked but of course celebrating, and
are wondering if this augurs a shift in conservative thinking
on the war on drugs.
"I suspect that Robertson has begun to realize that the War on
Drugs is bad for family values," Ilya Somin
writes at The Volokh
Conspiracy, a legal blog. "It will take a lot of good works to
make up for all the ridiculous and offensive things that
Robertson has said over the years. But helping to end the War
on Drugs would be a good start.
"As the recent defeat of California's Proposition 19 shows,
the opposition of social conservatives is one of the biggest
political obstacles to curtailing drug prohibition. Hopefully,
more conservatives will come to the same realization as
Robertson and, before him, the far more intellectually
respectable William F. Buckley."
Pete Guither at
DrugWarRant.com dares to hope
"that a powerful coalition of Democratic voters, principled
conservatives, libertarians . . . and Teapot Partiers" could
change the political dynamic. "Not bad."
But maybe not realistic. Robertson just doesn't have that much
pull with influential social conservatives anymore, and tends
to be viewed as a kindly old uncle who can go on a little too
long once he gets the microphone.
Then again, who knows? Maybe he'll now come out for the other
great libertarian cause, gay marriage. He'd have the younger
generation of evangelicals supporting him on that one.
