Pubdate: Mon, 03 Aug 2015
Source: Trentonian, The (NJ)
Copyright: 2015 The Trentonian
Contact:  http://www.trentonian.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1006
Author: Jeff Edelstein

CHRIS CHRISTIE IS WRONG WHEN IT COMES TO MARIJUANA

If Chris Christie becomes president, he said he would enforce the 
federal marijuana laws.

I'm also guessing he'd make husbands wear fedoras to work, make wives 
stay in the kitchen, and make sure the two of them gave each other a 
quick kiss goodnight before they turn into their individual twin beds.

Point being: The clock marches forward, not backward, Chris-o.

Now listen: Christie's view on pot hasn't changed all of a sudden 
because he's running for president. He's long been opposed to 
legalizing marijuana, but in recent weeks, he's ramped up the 
message. Why? Well, he's flailing about in the presidential polls and 
this is probably a good soundbite to get out there to the GOP base.

"If you're getting high in Colorado today, enjoy it," Christie said 
at a Town Hall in New Hampshire last week. "As of January 2017, I 
will enforce the federal laws."

He followed that up with a visit to "Fox and Friends," where he said, 
"Marijuana is against the law in the states and it should be enforced 
in all 50 states. That's the law and the Christie administration will 
support it."

The Christie administration (a little laughable at this point, no?) 
would therefore be on the wrong side of history.

Marijuana has become, like so much more before it, a social issue, 
especially for anyone on the "pro" side of things. It's not 
necessarily that I want marijuana to be legal; it's just that I find 
it insulting that it's illegal. I've smoked pot before, plenty enough 
of it to know it's not something someone should be jailed, fined, or 
otherwise hassled for. (And while I haven't tried most illicit 
substances, my gut tells me the same thing when it comes to them: If 
you're a heroin user, for instance, it seems inhumane to put you in 
jail. How does that help anyone?)

Anyway, marijuana has become a social issue, and like all social 
issues before it, Americans eventually come around to the right side 
of thinking, where personal liberty trumps all, as long as no one 
else's personal liberty is being tramped on.

It started with the big stuff: Religious freedom was one of the 
reasons we exist as a nation in the first place, for instance. Then 
came the end of slavery followed by women's rights, both of which 
clearly had to get done before we could look ourselves in the mirror 
and call the whole thing a free country.

Since then, it's been the relatively smaller stuff, one at a time. 
Gay marriage was the latest social domino to shimmy-shimmy right, 
shimmy-shimmy left and then fall right over. Transgender rights are up next.

When it comes to social issues in America, the arrow points in one 
direction and one direction only, and that's toward (cue video clip 
of bald eagles in flight) ... freedom.

Freedom to be what you want to be, do what you want to do, as long as 
you're not ruining someone else's life while doing so.

Marijuana certainly falls into that category, and politicians who 
continue to rail against it are not politicians I want representing 
me. It's as good a litmus test as any right about now.

So sure, Chris Christie might get an extra tenth of a percentage 
point bump in the polls - at least enough to secure him a spot at the 
debate on Thursday - by going on the marijuana offensive, but really: 
It's not going to serve him, or any candidate, well come election 
time. Hard to vote for a dinosaur on social issues. Feels backward.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom