I think he is swimming against the tide of history but he may be doing so to throw a carrot to social conservatives he has to woo. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/christie-ill-never-ok-legal-pot-nj-n86671 Christie: I'll Never OK Legal Pot in NJ By Carrie Dann Gov. Chris Christie says he will “never” permit legalized mar1juana use while he’s the governor of New Jersey. Responding to a question about pot legalization on a call-in radio show, Christie cited a recent study that showed even casual mar1juana use could be detrimental to the human brain. “I don’t care about the tax money that may come from it, and I don’t care, quite frankly, that people think it’s inevitable,” he said. “It’s not inevitable here, I’m not going to permit it, never as long as I’m governor.” A Quinnipiac poll earlier this month showed that New Jersey voters were evenly split on the question of whether to legalize possession of small amounts of mar1juana. Democrats in the state supported legalization 55 percent to 41 percent, while Republicans oppose it 61 percent to 34 percent. “I am not going to be the governor who’s going to tell our children and our young adults that mar1juana use is okay,” Christie said Tuesday. “Because it’s not.”
In the grand scheme of things, I don't think there are many voters that this will be a vote-deciding issue on, and the state is pretty evenly split on it anyway. Unlike something like gay rights, where you're really affecting the core of people's lives, I don't think this is really a "tide of history" type issue.
I hate to pile on with the fat comments but I find his argument hypocritical. "Christie cited a recent study that showed even casual mar1juana use could be detrimental to the human brain." A quick google search will pull up many studies linking obesity to mild brain damage. You are free to do whatever damage you want to do to your arteries, heart, joints, and brain with a cheeseburger but you can't smoke a joint in your own home cuz drugs.
Don't forget Xanax, Vicodin, other opioids, and the hundreds of other prescription drugs that have high substance abuse risk! And don't forget that the prison system, alcohol companies, and pharmaceuticals all stand to profit from pot being illegal! Big business wins again
Actually this is turning into an issue that is affecting the core of people's lives. In MN and other states parents of children have been giving heart rending stories about how their children cannot get treatment that could deal with debilitating conditions because medical mar1juana is illegal and now clergy groups are backing them too. http://www.startribune.com/politics/statelocal/256279081.html Once most of the country realize that CO and WA didn't become wastelands infested with stoned out zombies and fought over by drug gangs there will be a much stronger impetus to legalize in most other states.
Unfortunately its an election year because Gov. Dayton and the DFL are getting really conservative in terms of the scope of any medical mar1juana bill. The bill they're proposing is worse than the bill that Gov. Pawlenty vetoed a few years ago. Hopefully the DFL survives 2014 and passes an actual medical mar1juana bill instead of the joke of a bill that's floating around right now.
NJ will be handing out free glazed donut bacon cheeseburgers to promote good tasting stuff following Christie's meeting with the burger lobby Wednesday.
