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Possible Pres. Candidate Smoked Pot for Pain 2005-2008

BrainSellz

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Veteran
Possible Pres. Candidate Gary Johnson Smoked Pot from 2005-2008

Opinion by NORML
(12 Hours Ago) in Society / Drug Law
By "Radical" Russ Belville

Former NM Gov. Gary Johnson told the conservative magazine The Weekly Standard that he used marijuana for medical purposes from 2005-2008, before his state had passed a medical marijuana law.

Johnson has long portrayed himself as someone who has used marijuana. ”I don’t drink. I don’t smoke pot. But I have drank and I have smoked pot,” is a line I’ve personally heard the governor use in stump speeches at the NORML National Conference in Portland, the Seattle Hempfest, and he Cypress Hill Smokeout in San Bernardino, just three of the many pro-marijuana events Johnson has attended in support of his “Our America Initiative”. The Standard interviewed the possible candidate for the Republican nomination for president and became the first journalists to press Johnson on the time frame of his past-tense marijuana references.


“It’s not anything I volunteer, but you’re the only person that actually asked about it,” says Johnson, who governed New Mexico from 1994 to 2002. “But for luck, I guess, I wasn’t arrested.” Although smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes was illegal in New Mexico until 2007, Johnson says he needed the drug following a 2005 paragliding accident in Hawaii. His sails got caught in a tree, he stalled—and fell about fifty feet straight down to the ground, he says. Johnson suffered multiple bone fractures, including a burst fracture to his T12 vertebrae. “In my human experience, it’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt.”

“Rather than using painkillers, which I have used on occasion before, I did smoke pot, as a result of having broken my back, blowing out both of my knees, breaking ribs, really taking about three years to recover,” Johnson says. He explains that painkillers had once caused him to suffer nasty side effects and the pain of withdrawing from the pills was unbearable. So, Johnson says, in 2005 “someone” who cared for him gave him marijuana to deal with the pain.​
The Standard points out that Johnson’s honesty about his illegal medical marijuana use may be a handicap in appealing to Republican primary voters but it may be easier to sell to the typically more-conservative primary voter than his stance on cutting the bloated defense budget and withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan. He might also be an enigma to voters on both sides of the aisle with his support for gay civil unions yet opposition to a constitutional right to marriage (he thinks “government should be out of the marriage business and leave marriage to the churches.”) Women might applaud his support of a women’s right to abortion but think twice over his belief that Roe v. Wade was badly-decided from a constitutional perspective. Those Ron Paul supporters who might be attracted to Johnson’s libertarian streak might balk at his belief that “we really do have a vested interest in Israel” and his rejection of the 9/11 Truth movement calling for a reopening of the 9/11 investigation.
The 2012 presidential race will be featuring an incumbent who has disappointed much of his base, especially those of us who also “inhaled, frequently, that was the point”. There are already murmurs in Democratic and Progressive circles about running a Democratic primary challenger against President Obama, much like Sen. Ted Kennedy ran against President Jimmy Carter in 1980. On the GOP side, we may see Newt Gingrich carrying the neo-conservative vote, Mitt Romney appealing to the corporate conservatives, and Gary Johnson calling out to the libertarian-leaning Republicans. Throw in a possible GOP or even Independent bid from Sarah Palin, pulling the populist Tea Party votes, and I think Gary Johnson and the issue of marijuana legalization could win a plurality of the vote.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone to vote for who doesn’t want to throw you in jail?


I vote Gary Johnson
 

sac beh

Member
Summaries of his views on some other issues:

Gary Johnson on Civil Rights

* Support principles embodied in the Equal Rights Amendment. (Feb 2001)

Gary Johnson on Crime

* Supports flexible federal block grants for crime programs. (Sep 2001)
* Zero tolerance for violence against government employees. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Drugs

* War on Drugs is a miserable failure; $6M for treatment. (Apr 2001)
* More federal funding for all aspects of Drug War. (Aug 2000)
* States should make drug policy, not feds. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Energy & Oil

* Voluntary partnerships reduce greenhouse gases economically. (Aug 2000)
* Kyoto Treaty must include reductions by all countries. (Aug 2000)
* Federal tax incentives for energy, with state decisions. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Environment

* More state autonomy on brownfields & Superfund cleanups. (Aug 2001)
* Support State Revolving Loan Fund for flexible Clean Water. (Aug 2001)
* Focus on prevention and states for Endangered Species. (Aug 2001)
* Collaborative, incentive driven, locally-based solutions. (Aug 2001)
* Apply "Good Samaritan" rules to abandoned mine cleanup. (Aug 2001)
* State primacy over water quantity & quality issues. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Families & Children

* Encourage fathers' participation in child-raising. (Sep 2001)
* Federal funds & state involvement in fatherhood initiatives. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Government Reform

* Reforms must respect state's rights to select electors. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Health Care

* No federal pre-emption of employee health plan regulation. (Oct 2001)
* More federal funding for rural health services. (Aug 2001)
* Protect state tobacco settlement funds from federal seizure. (Apr 1999)

Gary Johnson on Immigration

* Share costs of legal immigration between states & federal. (Feb 2001)
* Federal government should deal with criminal repatriation. (Feb 2001)

Gary Johnson on Jobs

* Create block grants for Agricultural Stewardship. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Principles & Values

* Religious affiliation: Lutheran. (Nov 2000)
* Member, National Governors Association/Economic Development. (Jan 2001)
* Member of Republican Governors Association. (Aug 2001)
* Member of the Western Governors' Association. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Social Security

* Maintain long-term solvency of Social Security and Medicare. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Tax Reform

* No national sales tax or VAT. (Feb 2000)

Gary Johnson on Technology

* Level playing field for Main Street vs. Internet sales tax. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on War & Peace

* Deal with terrorism as a joint federal-state responsibility. (Feb 2001)
* Include states in anti-terrorism planning. (Sep 2001)
* Study terrorist threats against nuclear waste repositories. (Aug 2001)

Gary Johnson on Welfare & Poverty

* Maintain federal Social Services Block Grant funding. (Sep 2001)
* Maintain flexibility & funding levels for TANF block grants. (Sep 2001)
 

BrainSellz

Active member
Veteran
Johnson will be speaking on the politics panel at Kushcon, today at 4:30pm-6pm

Russ from NORML is on the same panel, so likely it will be broadcast on NORML's show:

http://www.stickam.com/normlshowlive
damn forgot to subscribe to my own thread:D.....thanks for the link and the heads up..

looks like maybe he changed his mind:)...

* War on Drugs is a miserable failure; $6M for treatment. (Apr 2001)
* More federal funding for all aspects of Drug War. (Aug 2000)
* States should make drug policy, not feds. (Aug 2001)
 
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