Saturday, March 10, 2012

Pat Robertson is now more progressive than the people running the federal government. That’s quite a feat.

http://bit.ly/zEm8Mu

"I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol," Mr. Robertson told The New York Times this week. "… This war on drugs just hasn't succeeded."

He has made similar remarks before on his show The 700 Club, but he went even further in this interview: "Prisons are being overcrowded with juvenile offenders having to do with drugs … Some of them could get 10 years for possession of a joint of marijuana. It makes no sense at all."

We're talking about someone who's about as conservative as they come... . Mr. Robertson is no friend to gays or feminists, and he believes that you can change the course of tornadoes if you pray hard enough. And yet even he is more enlightened about drug laws than our leaders in Ottawa. To quote Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's spokeswoman, responding to criticism of C-10, the government's omnibus crime legislation, the government has "no intention to decriminalize or legalize marijuana."

Pat Robertson is now more progressive than the people currently running the federal government. That's quite a feat.

When Bill C-10 passes this coming week, over an outcry from lawyers and academics, it will impose mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug offences: Growing six pot plants or more, for example. This comes at a time when other jurisdictions are rethinking decriminalization, in recognition of the fact that the war on drugs has turned into a Vietnam of wasted money and effort. Colorado and Washington state, for example, will both hold votes in November on legalizing pot.

In advocating legalization, Mr. Robertson joins a host of other degenerate beatniks that includes American police officers, four former attorneys-general of British Columbia and Tony Bennett. Let's not forget Kofi Annan, Paul Volcker, George Shultz and Canada's own Louise Arbour, all advisers to the Global Commission on Drug Policy.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The statement is very biased.

If Pat Robertson is more progressive than the people running the federal government, then surely he is more progressive than all of our major federal political parties. After all, none of them have made legalization official policy.

The phrase "the people running the federal goverment" implies some kind of illegitimacy, which is in my opininon unnecessarily partisan, given that this is a democracy, and especially when drug legalization is a perfect example of an issue with support from across the polical spectrum.

I believe in legalization, and I think it would require co-operation between people of shared views from all political parties to enact it.

My one (fairly major) concern however is whether it is possible to legalize drugs in Canada, while the "drug war" remains South of the border. Issues around "drug tourism" and the effects on border control could be extreme.

Now, to change the minds of those Americans....

Anonymous said...

Progressive has nothing do with Liberal or libertarian.

Progressive in Canada is nothing more than social justice and Marxism.

Moron is a naked Marxist.

Anonymous said...

"When Bill C-10 passes this coming week, over an outcry from lawyers and academics,"



The very people who have never lived in the real world, but rather a government protected bubble.



Why would an average person who works hard and pays taxes care about what special interest lawyers and academics say?


Lawyers like representing the same people for life as it is a very profitable industry.

Academics(?) like to pretend they know what's best for the general public, but again, they have never been part of the general public. They are a special interest as well.

It all comes down to people like Morton not giving a rats ass about victims of crime, but always, always fighting for the criminal.

There have been over 500 Canadians murdered by people on parole, but you would never hear a complaint about that from Morton.

He cares about the criminals because all of his friends in the government are just that.

James C Morton said...

Errh, and how many of those murderers are stoned on marijuana?

Anonymous said...

The over 500 Canadians killed by our "progessive" justice system is far more worrisome to me than whether Pat Robertson cares about pot or not.

Pat Robertson is a religious loon, the exact opposite coin as the progressive loons here in Canada.

Hey Morton, please tell me again how deterrence doesn't work.

I have been waiting for 3 years for you to explain that to me.

Anonymous said...

Anon #1 - point taken, but upwards of 11 States now have marijuana legislation that is more progressive than Canada (i.e. decriminalization). It's a shame that a supposedly sovereign country cannot implement the same policy already in place in these States.