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Michael Baumgartner, the Republican candidate for the United States Senate in Washington State, recently endorsed an initiative on the ballot this year that would legalize marijuana in the state. From the Seattle Times:
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Michael Baumgartner on Wednesday endorsed Initiative 502 to legalize retail sales of pot, calling the war on the illicit drug a matter of national security.
The freshman state senator, who is challenging Democrat Maria Cantwell, worked several years ago for a State Department program in Afghanistan to help farmers grow wheat instead of opium poppies.
He said his experience in Helmand province — and watching the U.S.-funded efforts to eradicate Mexican drug cartels — convinced him criminalizing marijuana for adults only enriches traffickers and takes law-enforcement efforts from pursuing organized crime.
Baumgartner is unlikely to win his race against incumbent Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell however. The polling of the race has consistently shown Cantwell with a double digit lead over Buamgartner.
This endorsement, though, could still be significant in two important ways. According to the polls, Republicans tend to be the group least supportive of marijuana legalization. Having a prominent Republican candidate in the state endorse marijuana legalization could convince some in the Republicans base to rethink their position on Initiative 502.
Second, this is another powerful indicator have how radically the politics surrounding marijuana reform have changed in the past decade. As little as ten years ago publicly supporting marijuana legalization was seen as a real political liability. Now there politicians in contested elections, like Baumgartner and King Country Sheriff Steve Strachan, endorsing legalization right before the election, presumably in attempt to make themselves more popular with voters.
4 Comments
Marijuana has been low-hanging fruit (so to speak) since Obama’s election. It was only a matter of time before the GOP started outflanking the Obamacrats from the Left. It is is good for the country and just shows yet again what a douchebag Obama is.
Good stuff, Jon! Way to get on top of it.
This is pretty “radical”…let’s see how the Washington state puritans react. :o)
- excerpt from “Cannabinoids, like those found in marijuana, occur naturally in human breast milk” (NaturalNews.com, Jonathan Benson, July 20, 2012)
I’ve seen a radical change in attitudes over the last two years and much to the credit of activists who’ve done tremendous work educating the public. Aside from certain vested interests offering obsolete or even harmful “alternatives,” who won’t want decriminalization of the herb?
American taxpayers are being forced to pay $40 Billion a year for a prohibition that causes 10,000 brutal murders & 800,000 needless arrests each year, but which doesn’t even stop CHILDREN getting marijuana.
After seventy-five years of prohibition, it’s obvious that the federal marijuana prohibition causes FAR more harm than good and must END! Drug Dealers Don’t Card, Supermarkets Do.