Rand not pro marijuana?wth?

[Dogsoldier]

"If I thought it would allow marijuana to take off in our state I wouldn't be for it"

"we don't want that to happen"


WTH? I'm really starting to change my mind about him.

 

[tsai3904]

Rand doesn't endorse marijuana but that has nothing to do with his views on decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level.

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/US_Senator_Rand_Paul_blocks_synthetic_marijuana_legislation

http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/21/rand-paul-says-states-should-be-free-to

Paul himself does not favor legalizing marijuana, but he says individual states—such as Washington and Colorado, which both voted to legalize in November—should be allowed to make marijuana legal.

"States should be allowed to make a lot of these decisions," Paul says. "I want things to be decided more at a local basis, with more compassion. I think it would make us as Republicans different."

 

[dannno]

Rand wants to win the GOP primary in 2016. Rand smoked plenty of cannabis in college, and while I can't tell you what his personal views actually are now and if those differ from the views he expresses to his wife or his family, he doesn't care if you use it in your own private residence and deep down he is probably much more libertarian on the issue than he will be making himself out to be in the next few years, so be prepared.

 

[TheTyke]

This was a state committee meeting, and his point was he is not pushing them to legalize it. The Kentucky State Police are claiming "hemp helps marijuana" as the primary argument against the bill, and he is defusing that. As Tsai points out, he's for states making their own decisions.

 

[One Last Battle!]

It might help him win the GOP primary in 2016, but I don't think it's worth it if he becomes another Generic Republican[SUP]tm[/SUP] and loses to a Democrat that isn't sliding to the right on issues that aren't terribly strong, even if he is secretly awesome after all.

 

[Brett85]

I think he's basically just trying to fight one battle at a time, and if he comes across like a big advocate for legalizing marijuana it might hurt his effort to legalize hemp, because certain people might think he has ulterior motives for wanting to legalize hemp. It seems like he was basically just conceding the marijuana issue in this hearing in order to address the concerns that police officers have and push for the legalization of hemp. At least that's what I got from it. I think deep down Rand is probably more libertarian on these issues than he lets on, but he just thinks that he can't take it too far if he wants a shot at the GOP nomination in 2016.

 

[Confederate]

Rand smoked plenty of cannabis in college

Source?

 

[dannno]

Source?

The media came out with the AquaBuddha story and tried to spin it like they had kidnapped this girl and tried to force her to take drugs. The woman even commented later that it wasn't anything like that, it was just a college prank. In other words, it happened like she described it, but she was playing along so it wasn't kidnapping, she could have left any time if she really wanted to. She never took drugs, so obviously he didn't force her to take drugs. Rand himself denied kidnapping anybody and forcing anybody to take drugs, he did not deny participating in these types of college pranks. There is no reason to believe that the woman's story was completely fabricated, and in the story all of the guys were smoking bongloads during the prank and they were trying to get her to take bongloads. AquaBuddha is a reference to smoking bongloads.

Although I don't think there is any hard proof that he did it, if you need hard proof for everything in life then you probably won't ever get the big picture.

 

[phill4paul]

He's a Senator. Senators represent their constituents. An interesting case study is our own Glen Bradley. In N.C. we had Amendment One to keep gays from marrying. Glen opposed it because he didn't feel the government has a role in marriage. However, his vote reflected his constituents. Don't like what Rand is doing then get his base to support legalization.
Politicians aren't elected to "go their own way" after election. They are elected to do what their constituents wish.
If you are from KY then let him know your views. Every email and phone call counts. It's the only way a politician knows what "the people" want.

 

[VoluntaryAmerican]

Dude... there is already a thread for this in Rand Paul's sub forum... where this belongs.

 

[Rudeman]

This was about legalizing hemp, not marijuana. Rand was simply diffusing the argument used against hemp. As far as marijuana goes I would imagine his position is similar to Ron's in that he would leave it up to the states, that doesn't mean either endorse it.

 

[Occam's Banana]

ZOMG! This is terrible! What's next? Are we gonna find out Rand is not pro-prostitution?

 

[Slutter McGee]

Bunch of goddamn hippies all of you.

Slutter McGee

 

[presence]

Drugs are a freedom of religion issue not a states rights issue.

 

[alucard13mmfmj]

weed is a minor issue compared to economy and the wars at the current moment.

doesnt particularly bother me, although id like to see weed addressed later on.

 

[Working Poor]

I think Rand realizes how important hemp is. It woulf create many new jobs.

 

[presence]

weed is a minor issue compared to economy and the wars at the current moment.

doesnt particularly bother me, although id like to see weed addressed later on.

Weed is also a major issue because our per capita prison population is the highest in the world and most of our prisoners are non-violent drug offenders with a roof over their head and a 3 square on uncle sam subsidies to the tune of 30-50k per head to the private prison industrial complex not to mention federal subsidies to the drug war. If the economy is important to you, then the billions we spend keeping pot heads in prison should be important to you and the billions we spend fighting the "war on drugs" should bother you.

 

[Dogsoldier]

"Weed is also a major issue because our per capita prison population is the highest in the world and most of our prisoners are non-violent drug offenders with a roof over their head and a 3 square on uncle sam subsidies to the tune of 30-50k per head to the private prison industrial complex not to mention federal subsidies to the drug war. If the economy is important to you, then the billions we spend keeping pot heads in prison should be important to you and the billions we spend fighting the "war on drugs" should bother you."

Exactly!

 

[Austrian Econ Disciple]

Bunch of goddamn hippies all of you.

Slutter McGee

Right...., because we don't believe a person should be harassed, imprisoned, fined, extorted, and made a criminal because the State said so when in fact, there are no victims and self-propriety is an inviolable principle and right. So, yeah, if that makes us Hippies, I'm proud to be one! Rand on the other hand seems to think it's fine for the State to kidnap, cage, and steal from people all because they decided to use their body in a manner in which some uppity puritanical douchebags didn't like. Wow, he is so great!

 

[Brett85]

Rand has said that the states should have the right to legalize marijuana, which should really be all that matters since Rand will likely be running for President, not Governor of a state. It's not necessary for him to make the case for outright legalization of drugs. I support that, but most Americans aren't at that point yet, and certainly not most Republicans.