700 Club's Pat Robertson for Marijuana Legalization?

by the Left Coast Rebel

You just know that times-are-a-changing when you come across a headline that seemingly points to 700 Club's Pat Robertson as favoring the legalization of marijuana. Perhaps it should come as no surprise since more and more Americans favor legalization these days (as I wrote here), despite California proposition 19's failure in November as well.

I think that the Tea Party movement plays a big part in today's America in questioning the inner workings of our overbearing Federal government. And it's not that Tea Partiers favor marijuana or drug legalization per se, it's that they question the Federal government's ability to carry out a campaign like the "War on Drugs" or the "War on Poverty" without actually exacerbating the targeted issue instead of "solving" it.

Melissa Bell in of all places, the Washington Post points to this:

Robertson's position is not as unusual as you might think. Support for legalizing marijuana has been growing amongst conservatives, who cite legalization as an answer to the "narcoterroism" in Mexico and the overburdened jail system. In October, Newsweek looked at the GOP's relationship to marijuana, saying that although only 25 percent of Republicans favor legalizing marijuana (as compared to 55 percent of Democrats), the number has jumped seven points since 2005. The article credits the influence of the anti-government-intervention Tea Party:

It's becoming increasingly hard for conservative candidates and lawmakers to square libertarian Tea Party catchphrases like "fiscal responsibility" and "limited government" with the government's war on drugs, especially when their constituents might prefer to see a war on joblessness.

I have to add that the Newsweek article above gets it totally wrong on the Tea Party preferring a "War on Joblessness" campaign from the Federal government in lieu of the war on drugs. That is unless such a war would be would involve simply stopping every single thing that the progressive overlords in the Congress/Dirty Fed and White House are doing and then putting everything the Federal government does on the chopping block then scaling things back to a sensible, limited scope of government.

That would indeed be the ultimate "War on Joblessness".

Here's the video where Pat Robertson expresses support for marijuana legalization:



Via Memeorandum, here

Updated: Ilya Somin's reaction over at the libertarian Volokh Conspiracy:

I have to commend his call for the legalization of marijuana. Moreover, he cites several good reasons for this stance, including the high cost of prohibition, and the fact that imprisonment of small-time drug dealers and users is “ruining young people.” I suspect that Robertson has begun to realize that the War on Drugs is bad for family values. 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.