Ron Paul: Marijuana Policy Should Be Set By The States (VIDEO)

Ron Paul went out of his way to emphasize his support for medical marijuana, insisting that marijuana laws should be set not by the federal government but by the states.

"You can at least let sick people have marijuana because it's helpful," Paul said. "But the compassionate conservatives say, well we can't do this, we're going to put people who are sick and dying with cancer and are being helped with marijuana if they have multiple sclerosis -- the federal government is going in there and overriding state laws and putting people like that in prison."

The Obama administration had promised a hands-off policy on marijuana laws, saying the issue was best regulated at the state level. But the number of raids has been on the rise, and last month federal prosecutors in California announced a crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries, threatening to shutter state-licensed businesses.

"Why don't we handle the drugs like we handle alcohol?" Paul continued. "Alcohol's a deadly drug. The real deadly drugs are the prescription drugs, they kill more people than the illegal drugs."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a report earlier this month showing that the number of deaths from overdoses of legal prescription painkillers has more than tripled in the past decade, killing 14,800 people in 2008, up from 4,000 deaths in 1999.

Paul's comments came as part of a larger commentary on drug policy. It's not the first time he's called for an end to the so-called war on drugs.

In June, he teamed up with Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) to introduce legislation removing marijuana from the list of federally regulated substances. Though essentially dead upon arrival, the bill helps to illuminate Paul's views.

"I think the federal war on drugs is a total failure," said Paul to hearty applause from the audience.

"The drug war is out of control," he added. "I fear the drug war, because it undermines our civil liberties, it magnifies our problems on the borders -- we spent like over the last 40 years a trillion dollars on this war and, believe me, the kids can still get the drugs. It just hasn't worked."

For more on where the rest of the GOP field stands on marijuana policy, see the slideshow below.

Comments

[El Confusado]

01:55 PM on 12/08/2011

So: Paul Pot revisits the Killer Ganja Fields, looking for votes. You go, little guy!

[QuantumofSilence]

01:37 PM on 12/08/2011

I agree with him.

[Kathryn Talbert]

01:27 PM on 12/08/2011

""You can at least let sick people have marijuana because it's helpful,"

Oh how generous Paul, will you personally give them a joint as your staff whisks them out of the office for not having the funds to pay for your services?

[jerdog365]

01:32 PM on 12/08/2011

Your comment makes absolutely no sense what so ever. If your referring to universal healthcare, you did a lousy job of it.

[americanpirates]

09:22 AM on 12/13/2011

When he was a doctor he gave free treatment to the poor. Did you know that? But the government has to force you to me moral, right? Because the Fed government is so, so moral...ah, let me count the ways...

[cureyourosity]

01:27 PM on 12/08/2011

When you're right Ron Paul--you're right. The war on drugs hasn't worked. I doubt you'll find 4000 deaths from weed on the books anywhere!
The problem is that the government feels like they have to do "something". Marijuana can be regulated but I have since it would cut into Big Pharma's profits their lobby will continue to work hard to keep such openminded thinking at bay.

[robadeaux]

03:05 PM on 12/08/2011

The only way you can die from weed is if the drug cops shoot you in your own home.
azstarnet.com/.../article_d7d979d4-f4fb-5603-af76-0bef206f8301.ht

[El Confusado]

01:21 PM on 12/08/2011

If this guy had the guts to formally address the people behind extending this stupid prohibition -- PHARMA, the alcohol and cigarette lobbies, and the asset-seizure-happy DEA people -- I'd give him a lot more credit. As it is, we've got people proclaiming him to be a genius for simply stating the bloody obvious.

[JohnFromCensornati]

01:12 PM on 12/08/2011

Why does he hate The Children?

[El Confusado]

01:22 PM on 12/08/2011

Why don't you use The Brain Cells?

[JohnFromCensornati]

01:40 PM on 12/08/2011

Backatcha dullwit.

[CimmerianX]

01:09 PM on 12/08/2011

Funny how all the conservatives want small government, except for War Mongering like the Failed War on Drugs.

Hypocrites. They claim that all drugs should be forever illegal while they drink their scotch, have coffee in the morning, then go home and take Ambien to sleep.

[El Confusado]

01:52 PM on 12/08/2011

William F. Buckley was dead set against the war on drugs. If the "Firing Line" drug legalization debate is available on YouTube, you might do well to watch it. Democratic representatives Charles Rangel and Pat Shroeder were very much against the legalization of marijuana; Buckley was teamed with ACLU guy Ira Glasser and commodity trader Richard Dennis, who sometimes passed for a conservative.

And the guy who made the US the Jailer Nation, that was Bill Clinton. And Clinton is the guy who signed the legislation denying federal student loans to people who had been busted for drugs, some 300,000 students in the US to date. Oh: And something like three million nonviolent drug offenders, with long prison sentences thanks to Clinton advocating for and signing "three strikes" legislation.

The Democrats are not pure.

[bluecatb]

02:11 PM on 12/08/2011

Yep. Fanned for the hypocracygate of most of those in charge.
Everyone knows the Bushes have been running drugs since the early 80's on both sides of the isle and causing ethnic division in smaller countries producing drugs are their competition.
Google Guatamala, Ecquador drug trade and see Ollie North connection during Reagan.

Hypocrits, thy name is Republican and Ron Paul is a true Libertarian representing sensible people effected by this idiocy and law of behavior. It's like saying don't bite your nails or fart. it's your right if you're over 18, not only that but actually activates the creative mind of the brain.
Alcohol kills brain cells.

I rest my case.

[Britishdemocrat]

12:57 PM on 12/08/2011

Ron paul is a right clown and people shouldn't be gullible enough to vote for him.

[fumes]

01:22 PM on 12/08/2011

bloody thoughtless post

[jerdog365]

01:34 PM on 12/08/2011

Go save the queen and while your there, stay there.

[mutatis mutandis]

09:31 PM on 12/04/2011

MMJ petition

http://wh.gov/jtY

[Eagleman]

09:27 PM on 12/04/2011

Crazy uncle Paul looking for Pothead votes ?

[fumes]

01:23 PM on 12/08/2011

and yet..

he has a Doctorate..

and you don't

[Kathryn Talbert]

01:35 PM on 12/08/2011

I'd be inclined to say that's his entire demographic but I don't want to insult potheads who think.

But his demographic is mostly frustrated pot smoking suburban white kids and their now aging gen-Xers who never left mom's basement. They view Ron Paul videos in between War of the Worlds sessions.

[sprachnessmonster]

07:15 AM on 12/02/2011

Let's see now...
Should I go get a prescription for the pain from my permanent back injury-paid mainly by medicare-for a highly addictive drug containing opiates-that I will develop a tolerance to-eventually requiring me to eat them by the handful-leaving me incapable to do anything except host a popular radio show for Neocons?
Or should I snap a bong load of something that occurs in nature...but I pay full price from a dispensary without any government assistance- and go on my way?
And the kicker is...The Netherlands just closed three prisons due to lack of customers. Why? Because they decriminalized drugs....and crime went down.
Where's the mystery? Prohibition did not work. A lot of people got killed then. Just like in Mexico now.
Again I say, where's the mystery? Why is this still an issue? Follow the money and you will find the answer.

[Stirner]

11:03 PM on 12/02/2011

Since Prohibition, the state of Pennsylvania has been in control of alcohol sales. Every now and then a half-hearted effort is made to get them out of the racket. They all fail. Once a state (or nation) is given the power to manipulate and control a free-market, they will do so. Attempts, by such as Ron Paul, to get the state out of the market are usually greeted with a great moral outcry led by the people who enjoy the power and money gained from market control. They do not care about your "back pain". They only care to keep folks "moral", and b Besides, it also pays well since you can tax and punish the "immoral" folks -- such as pot-smokers. Pathetic.

[Gregory Hinton]

01:08 PM on 12/08/2011

plus paul comes from a state that has draconian marajuana laws, nazi texas.

[Kathryn Talbert]

01:37 PM on 12/08/2011

Yeah yeah, apparently you missed that whole recent financial meltdown the country has experienced due to the "unregulated free market" thing exploding with those unregulated bankers making millions of "free market" cash by robbing it from hard working Americans.

[Margie Kronewitter]

12:41 AM on 12/02/2011

I'm 62 and have known Drinkers & Smokers. No Contest. Smokers are so much more interesting & interested in Living Life. Alcohol damages the brain by softening it, then it gets hardened by the catylist. Pot relaxes the brain so it can later grow.

[robadeaux]

03:09 PM on 12/08/2011

Not to mention the family violence and general all around death that comes with alcohol use...

[dang47]

11:49 PM on 12/01/2011

It is not coincidence that after 9/11 the taliban burned the opium fields. Then when the allies invaded, the opium crop went from around 30 m/tonnes, to 300 m/tonnes. I have friends in the Canadian military, they wouldnt even let them bring their fatigues home because of the opium saturation from patrolling the fields, cant have your homebound soldiers straining opium out of their pants. The USA has been the largest trafficer of drugs in the world since the 60′s, the opium wars never stopped, and the sheeple that are in denial, are the very ones that encourage prohibition. Who is happy when the black market flourishes, the criminals that are making money off it. who will scream the loudest every time someone says legalize pot, the ones who have the most to lose, in Canada its the Harper regime (feds), in the USA its the federal government, and wall st. Malo periculosam libertatem quam quietum servitium.

[robadeaux]

03:13 PM on 12/08/2011

"Latine dictum, sit altum videtur"...

[dang47]

07:20 PM on 12/08/2011

lol

"I prefer liberty with danger to peace with slavery"

[cloudkid]

11:02 PM on 12/01/2011

Someone gets it! I'm not a drug user and I can see that corrupt behaviour and fear that is systemic with the fedreal government and its war on drugs across the world. Thats why we went to Afghanistan. For opium fields that grew over 99% since the war on terror. Its horrendous to think that a person who grew a plant, and reaped its benefits can go to jail and share a cell mate with a rapist or murderer. WE PAY FOR THAT WITH TAXES! Good lord... its insane. You America, are insane to let this continue.

[xham1]

12:03 PM on 12/01/2011

Fun watching HuffPo readers struggle with this. The hippie in them wants to smoke weed but the fraidicat in them wants government to protect them from everything. Solution: 1. Try a little personal responsibility for a change. 2. Stop LYING about addiction being a disease in order to get free 'medical' help.

[robadeaux]

03:16 PM on 12/08/2011

Might be that if you open your mind and heart a bit, and take your head out of your a*s, you'd understand more of life.