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BrnCow
Televangelist Pat Robertson is reiterating one of his most unexpected political positions: America shouldn’t punish people for smoking pot.
“I became sort of a hero of the hippie culture, I guess, when I said I think we ought to decriminalize the possession of marijuana,” he said during a segment of his show, The 700 Club, last week, according to a blog on Reason.com.
Robertson, an 81-year-old who sides with Christian Right, doesn’t look or sound like a hippie hero, often championing socially conservative stances. For him, the decriminalization of pot is part of improving the country’s criminal justice system.
“It’s just shocking, especially this business about drug offenses. It’s time we stop locking up people for possession of marijuana. We just can’t do it anymore…You don’t lock ‘em up for booze unless they kill somebody on the highway.”
Robertson first told viewers back in December 2010 that he was concerned mandatory sentences for possession were hurting young people.
“I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong,” he said in the clip below. “But I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing is costing us a fortune, and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That’s not a good thing.”
The TV host, known for controversial statements blaming natural disasters on human sin, isn’t the only conservative politician with this stance. Members of the group Right on Crime are also pushing for a limited government that doesn’t spend money incarcerating non-violent criminals.
http://blog.chron.com/believeitorno...on-wants-to-legalize-pot-now-a-‘hippie-hero’/
“I became sort of a hero of the hippie culture, I guess, when I said I think we ought to decriminalize the possession of marijuana,” he said during a segment of his show, The 700 Club, last week, according to a blog on Reason.com.
Robertson, an 81-year-old who sides with Christian Right, doesn’t look or sound like a hippie hero, often championing socially conservative stances. For him, the decriminalization of pot is part of improving the country’s criminal justice system.
“It’s just shocking, especially this business about drug offenses. It’s time we stop locking up people for possession of marijuana. We just can’t do it anymore…You don’t lock ‘em up for booze unless they kill somebody on the highway.”
Robertson first told viewers back in December 2010 that he was concerned mandatory sentences for possession were hurting young people.
“I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong,” he said in the clip below. “But I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kinda thing is costing us a fortune, and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That’s not a good thing.”
The TV host, known for controversial statements blaming natural disasters on human sin, isn’t the only conservative politician with this stance. Members of the group Right on Crime are also pushing for a limited government that doesn’t spend money incarcerating non-violent criminals.
http://blog.chron.com/believeitorno...on-wants-to-legalize-pot-now-a-‘hippie-hero’/
