Pubdate: Sun, 21 Oct 2012
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Copyright: 2012 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/qFJNhZNm
Website: http://www.stltoday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/418
Author: Bill McClellan

GOP CANDIDATE IS PROUDLY PRO-POT

Let's take a pop quiz.

John Wright comes from a prominent family. He has degrees in economics
and law from Yale. He worked as an investment banker for Goldman
Sachs. He was a principal at a venture capital firm.

Mitch Richards used to volunteer for Show-Me Cannabis, an organization
working to decriminalize marijuana.

The two are running for a seat in the Missouri Legislature.

Which man is from which party?

Wright is the Democrat. Richards is the Republican.

For the purpose of the quiz, I have, of course, greatly condensed the
two resumes of the candidates for Missouri's 47th District. Campaign
stories from the Columbia Daily Tribune -- the district includes that
city -- indicate that both men are much more than the abbreviated
resumes would make them appear.

Wright has deep roots in central Missouri. His family has been in the
state for nearly 200 years. He attended public schools in Columbia and
won a presidential scholarship his senior year. He was valedictorian
of his class at Yale. After returning to Missouri, he founded a
nonprofit organization that promotes early childhood literacy.

Richards grew up in Montana. He earned a degree in history from the
University of Montana and then a master's in East European Studies
from the University of Bologna in Italy. He speaks several languages
and owns a language service company.

If they both seem wildly overqualified for the Missouri Legislature,
blame it on their district. Despite its proximity to Jefferson City,
Columbia is the intellectual capital of the state.

But it wasn't the quality of the candidates that caught my attention.
It was the fact that Richards had volunteered for Show-Me Cannabis.

As regular readers know, I support that organization.

I first read about Richards in Jerry Berger's online gossip column
last week in an item titled, "GOP Nominates Marijuana Legalization
Activist for Mo. Legislature." Berger wrote that Richards had listed
himself with the Missouri Ethics Commission as the founding treasurer
of Show-Me Cannabis Regulation. Berger wrote that Republican leaders
had been unaware of their candidate's past.

The Riverfront Times then picked up the story. Reporter Jessica
Lussenhop spoke with C. Bruce Cornett, chairman of the Boone County
Republican Central Committee. Cornett said he and his colleagues had
been aware of Richards' views on pot.

"It's absolutely untrue that we didn't know that or that Mitch hid
that from us," he said.

Richards was selected as the party's candidate at a meeting at a
Denny's restaurant in late June.

The only candidate to file for the primary had dropped out. The party
then nominated a replacement. She dropped out. A third choice was
offered the spot and refused. The party then turned to Richards, 30,
who had previously run unsuccessfully for a seat on the Columbia City
Council.

The next day's story in the Columbia Daily Tribune indicated that
Richards had some libertarian views, but that Republican committee
members felt it important to have a Republican on the ballot.

So they have one. I called Richards on Friday.

He said his position on pot was consistent with his preference for a
small government. He compared his support for medical marijuana to his
opposition of Obamacare.

"If we believe the government shouldn't tell us which doctors we can
go to, why should the government be able to tell us what medicines we
can use?"

I figure insurance companies already tell us which doctors we can use,
and I'm not convinced the Affordable Care Act would do much either way
on that issue. But I did not want to argue.

I asked Richards what he thought about legalizing pot.

He said that as an activist, he supported legalization, but as a
legislator, he would defer to his constituents. The only legitimate
solution is to put it to a vote of the people, he said.

It is something to consider, he said. The government is
broke.

It's not just money, he added. It's about federalism, and separation
of powers. If we're going to say we believe in limited government, we
should be consistent, he said. Otherwise, we invite the derision of
the people, particularly young people, he said.

He also said he didn't want his candidacy to be all about pot. He said
he was pro-gun and anti-abortion.

Has he smoked pot?

"That is not the issue," he said.
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MAP posted-by: Matt