{"id":184603,"date":"2012-03-08T18:53:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T23:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2012\/03\/08\/pat-robertson-wants-marijuana-decriminalized\/"},"modified":"2012-03-08T18:53:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T23:53:00","slug":"pat-robertson-wants-marijuana-decriminalized","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2012\/03\/08\/pat-robertson-wants-marijuana-decriminalized\/","title":{"rendered":"Pat Robertson Wants Marijuana Decriminalized?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>No, seriously, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/03\/08\/us\/pat-robertson-backs-legalizing-marijuana.html\">I am not joking<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote style=\"color: blue;\"><p>Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader \u2014 including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing \u2014 his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol,\u201d Mr. Robertson said in an interview on Wednesday. \u201cI\u2019ve never used marijuana and I don\u2019t intend to, but it\u2019s just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn\u2019t succeeded.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Robertson\u2019s remarks echoed statements he made last week on \u201cThe 700 Club\u201d the signature program of his Christian Broadcasting Network, and other comments he made in 2010. While those earlier remarks were largely dismissed by his followers, Mr. Robertson has now apparently fully embraced the idea of legalizing marijuana, arguing that it is a way to bring down soaring rates of incarceration and reduce the social and financial costs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe in working with the hearts of people, and not locking them up,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Robertson\u2019s remarks were hailed by pro-legalization groups, who called them a potentially important endorsement in their efforts to roll back marijuana penalties and prohibitions, which residents of Colorado and Washington will vote on this fall. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>All this while the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/03\/06\/world\/americas\/us-remains-against-drug-legalization-in-mexico-biden-says.html\">Obama administration doubles down on the war on drugs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Rev. Robinson isn&#8217;t any smarter than the Obama administration, but he also hasn&#8217;t been captured by government bureaucracies , and he doesn&#8217;t feel the need to outflank his political opposition by running to the right, so he actually can consider what is optimal policy.<\/p>\n<p>If Pat Roberson can get this right, <b>anyone<\/b> can.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No, seriously, I am not joking: Of the many roles Pat Robertson has assumed over his five-decade-long career as an evangelical leader \u2014 including presidential candidate and provocative voice of the right wing \u2014 his newest guise may perhaps surprise his followers the most: marijuana legalization advocate. \u201cI really believe we should treat marijuana the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1013,972,978],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drugs","category-justice","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184603"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184603\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}