Yesterday, a Denver, Colorado CBS affiliate got some face-time with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. The interviewer asked questions important to local voters: gay marriage, college tuition for illegal immigrants, and medical marijuana.
Romney, of course, was none too pleased. With his now trademark tone and incredulous guffaw, he asked the interviewer if there were any "issues of significance" she'd like to ask about.
Marijuana proponents aren't at all surprised by this; Romney has been against legalization and had dodged a couple of questions on the campaign trail. But it turns out that Romney did say something "of significance" in the interview.
You can watch the CBS Denver interview here. And here's Romney's response to the interviewer after she riles him up with issues central to Colorado's voters (interviewer's marijuana question starts just past 2 minutes into the video):
Aren't there issues of significance that you’d like to talk about? The economy, the growth of jobs, the need to put people back to work, the challenges of Iran? We’ve got enormous issues that we face. But you want - go ahead, you want to talk about medical marijuana?
[reporter stutters]
I think medical marijuana should not be legal in this country. I believe it's a gateway drug to other drug violations. The use of illegal drugs in this country is leading to terrible consequences in places like Mexico, and actually in our own country. I oppose legalization of marijuana. I oppose legalization of other kinds of drugs...
(Strangely, Romney says that marijuana is not an "issue of significance" but then says that its use "is leading to terrible consequences" both here and Mexico.)
Again, this is totally expected from Romney. He's anti-medical marijuana, no surprises there. But the most interesting part of the interview happened as Mitt Romney was taking his microphone off. The interviewer commented that she got around to asking about the economy. "Finally," Romney laughed as he shook some hands and began to walk off camera. "I'm not running on marriage and marijuana - those are state issues, right? Aren't they, really?"
Does this mean that Mitt Romney would take a federal-hands-off approach to medical marijuana? Would Romney discontinue raids on the medical marijuana industry? Well, probably not. We know of another guy who said that medical marijuana is a state issue and that he'd let those states work it out themselves. Coincidentally, he became President of the United States, and more raids have been carried out under his administration in four years than the last Republican president did in eight.
- Article orginally from Kush Magazine.
