Mother Jones magazine: on Drugs
Ben Carson:
Exposure to marijuana results in decreased IQ
Carson has said he's a fan of the war on drugs, and he told "The Blaze" he would "intensify it." He also supports medical marijuana "in compassionate cases." At a June campaign event in Colorado, he noted that "regular exposure to marijuana in
the developing brain has been proven to result in a decreased IQ. The last thing we need is a bunch of people running around with decreased IQ." Therefore, he says, he'd enforce federal drug laws in which the use of marijuana is considered a crime.
Source: Mother Jones 2015 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 28, 2015
Carly Fiorina:
I don't support legal pot, but I support states' pot choice
Fiorina has come out against marijuana legalization under all circumstances, but she also supports states' rights. "I don't support legalized marijuana for a whole host of reasons, including the fact that this is a very complex chemical substance,
and when we tell young people it is just like drinking a beer, we are not telling them the truth," she told the Hill in June. "But I think Colorado voters made a choice, I don't support their choice, but I do support their right to make that choice."
Source: Mother Jones 2015 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 28, 2015
Donald Trump:
1990: Drug enforcement is a joke; 2015: only medical pot
The GOP front-runner's position has changed over the years. In 1990, he was quoted in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune as saying that US drug enforcement efforts were "a joke" and that drugs should be legalized to "take the profit away from these drug czars."
Fast-forward 25 years and now Trump is opposed to legalization. "I say it's bad," he told the crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference in June, in response to a question about
Colorado's legal weed. "Medical marijuana is another thing, but I think [recreational marijuana] it's bad. And I feel strongly about that." But what about states' rights? "If they vote for it, they vote for it.
But they've got a lot of problems going on right now, in Colorado. Some big problems. But I think medical marijuana, 100 percent."
Source: Mother Jones 2015 coverage of 2016 presidential hopefuls
Oct 28, 2015
Donald Trump:
Legalize drugs and use tax revenue to fund drug education
Trump argued in 1990 that the only way to win the War on Drugs was to legalize drugs and use the tax revenue to fund drug education programs.
As he put it, "You have to take the profit away from these drug czars." In his 2000 book, The America We Deserve, he stated that he'd never tried drugs "of any kind."
Source: Tim Murphy in Mother Jones magazine
Apr 20, 2011
Haley Barbour:
Ban synthetic marijuana
The former tobacco lobbyist turned Mississippi governor signed a law last
September banning synthetic marijuana (or "MoJo") from being sold in his state.
Source: Tim Murphy in Mother Jones magazine
Apr 20, 2011
Jon Huntsman:
Never smoked pot; never legalized it in Utah
In honor of 4/20, here's a quick guide to where the GOP's 2012 contenders stand on pot: In 1978, Jon Huntsman dropped out of high school to play in a prog rock band called "Wizard." As Politico noted, two of his bandmates were "very active in drugs," but
Huntsman, who is Mormon, never joined in, and a friend says he "never saw him inhale." Medical marijuana is not legal in Utah, where Huntsman was governor for four years.
Source: Tim Murphy in Mother Jones magazine
Apr 20, 2011
Mitch Daniels:
Alternative sentencing for marijuana possession
As a student in Princeton, the Indiana governor was arrested in a police ating. Daniels was cited for pot possession but got off with a $350 fine for "maintaining a common nuisance." He later called the incident an "unfortunate confluence of my wild oats
period and America's libertine apogee". As governor, Daniels has endorsed alternative sentencing for non-violent offenses like pot possession as a way to reduce prison overcrowding.
Source: Tim Murphy in Mother Jones magazine on Bush Cabinet
Apr 20, 2011
Mitt Romney:
Opposes legalization of recreational or medical marijuana
The former Massachusetts governor opposes the legalization of recreational or medical marijuana, although he endorsed the use of synthetic pot. In his most recent book,
No Apology, he attributes the legalization movement to "the passion and zeal of those members of the pleasure-seeking generation that never grew up."
Source: Tim Murphy in Mother Jones magazine
Apr 20, 2011
Newt Gingrich:
Marijuana legalization would tear America apart
Gingrich now says that pot legalization would tear America apart: "Every place drugs are legalized the net effect is more people on welfare, more people who are dependent, more people with bad health care outcomes, fewer people who are able
workers able to pay attention on the job and a drain of money into illegality, because immediately behind legalized marijuana comes cocaine and heroin."
Source: Tim Murphy in Mother Jones magazine
Apr 20, 2011
Thomas Ravenel:
In favor of ending the war on drugs
Ravenel is in favor of ending the war on drugs. [He was elected in 2006 but] his term in office didn't last long. By June 2007 he was indicted on federal charges for possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. (He wasn't selling, he tells
Mother Jones, just offering to friends when he was using it a couple of times per month: "I shared it because I didn't want to be a stingy guy who used it but didn't give it back," he says, noting that he "never even bought an eight-ball.")
Then-Gov. Mark Sanford (R) suspended Ravenel immediately, and he resigned from office shortly thereafter. Facing 20 years in jail and a $1 million fine, Ravenel accepted a plea deal to serve 10 months in prison and pay a $250,000 fine (he spent the
last three months of that sentence on house arrest at his mother's retirement home). He again ran afoul of the law when he faced drunk-driving charges in 2013, though that only resulted in a six-month suspension of his driver's license and a small fine.
Source: Mother Jones magazine on 2014 South Carolina Senate race
May 12, 2014
Page last updated: Mar 09, 2024