Sarah Palin Really Doesn’t Care if You Smoke Pot
But the tea-party muse is against legalization.
-Jane Farrell
It’s probably not a position a lot of hard-core conservatives would be happy with, but Sarah Palin says she’s not too concerned about marijuana users who smoke the occasional joint at home.
Speaking on the Fox Business Network, the former GOP vice presidential candidate did say, “If we’re talking about pot, I’m not for the legalization of pot … I think that would just encourage especially our young people to think that it was OK to just go ahead and use it.”
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She went on to say, “I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts….And if somebody’s gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody else any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems that we have in society.”
Overall, Palin said that “relatively speaking” the issue is “a minimal problem.”
In general, though, bottom-line statistics on the import and use of cannabis appear to be anything but minimal. National Drug Threat Assessment, a 2009 report from the U.S. Department of Justice, said that approximately 15,500 tons of marijuana were produced in Mexico in 2007, “primarily for export to the United States.” Users in the United States, many of whom buy marijuana made in Mexico, number 25 million, the report said. (Time, U.S. Department of Justice)
Jane Farrell is a senior editor for Betty Confidential.
