Mitt Romney Ducks Medical Marijuana Questions

WASHINGTON -- GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney repeatedly dodged questions about medical marijuana, refusing to engage activists who took to the campaign trail in New Hampshire to press him on the issue.

Asked by a member of Students for Sensible Drug Policy about his views on the drug war, Romney demurred, referring his questioner to his website.

"It's a long ... it's a long question," Romney said at a rally in Bedrock on Jan 9. "It deserves a full answer, and not just in a photo line like this."

But neither the drug war nor drug policy is addressed on his website, mittromney.com.

At a town hall Laconia on Jan. 6, Romney was similarly evasive when asked whether he supports arresting medical marijuana patients.

"I'm in favor of having the law not allow illegal marijuana," he said.

Romney has stated his opposition to medical cannabis in the past. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he said, "I don't want marijuana to be used in our country. I'm not going to legalize marijuana." He's offered no in-depth discussions of the issue recently.

Marijuana policy doesn't appear to be an issue Romney follows closely. Asked at a recent town hall in Petersborough for his view on industrializing hemp, the former Massachusetts governor answered, "I have no idea what industrialized hemp is."

Advocates said they hope there's a teaching moment to be had.

"So we’ve concluded that Mitt Romney is unaware of what industrialized hemp is," the medical marijuana advocate who questioned Romney about hemp narrated on his video. "It's an education, an uphill battle from here, but we have a starting point."

Comments

[Benjamin A Gardner]

12:58 PM on 12/22/2012

Mitt Romney cares nothing about the masses only his pockets

[Corey Miller]

02:32 PM on 08/06/2012

The Romney campaign really needs someone to educate them on what medical marijuana is all about today. Instead of them using archain ways to discribe something no one knows about.

[Jersey TeapotParty]

07:37 AM on 08/06/2012

How can a guy that has no idea what industrialized hemp is defend prohibiting it!! We used be able to pay the government in hemp, read history!

[lisaowen691]

08:49 AM on 02/08/2012

He has earned the right to duck this issue. I love him for this :)

My Top 5 reasons for Medical Marijuana to be legalized are as follows:

1. It has beneficial healing properties for many mental and physical illness.
2. Save lots of money reducing prison, police and court costs.
3. Take a large amount of money out of the black markets and put it into the economy.
4. Tax and license it so people can grow, buy, sell etc.
5. It will create new industries and jobs.

http://bigbudsmag.com/lifestyle/medicine

[dbrett480]

12:57 PM on 01/19/2012

He is right to duck this issue. There are much more important ones; like his tax returns.

[Jeremy Echols]

01:05 AM on 01/23/2012

The drug war has cost too much and claimed too many lives to call this issue unimportant. 2 billion a year for the DEA's budget alone. Local prison costs.

Just like alcohol prohibition, pot prohibition has increased violence due to inflating the value and putting the entire supply into the hands of criminals.

[ray christl]

02:33 PM on 01/15/2012

Politico discourse in Amerika is that of a child...50,000 murdered Mexicans at our doorstep mean nothing to the purveyors of imperial hubris.

[iwan2bfre]

11:27 PM on 01/12/2012

this guy even claims to know what freedom is???????????
he is obviously a facist who will jail people for enjoying freedom||||||||||||
what a self-obcessed, narcissistic jerkwad.

[ray christl]

02:35 PM on 01/15/2012

Let me be your first fan---so true, & the whole process made me seek exile--live in PPenh.

[ricchh]

04:39 PM on 01/12/2012

Romney is going to turn back the clock and outlaw alcohol, smoking, abortion, civil rights.

[Robert Whitten]

04:11 PM on 04/09/2012

And Coffee?

[tck29]

08:13 AM on 01/12/2012

"I'm in favor of having the law not allow illegal marijuana," he said.

Wonderful doublespeak!

"So you don't deny never having said that marijuana should not be illegal under the law"?

[chickens]

07:00 PM on 01/11/2012

I will be voting for Obama if this guy gets the nomination. And I think Obama is a great big Fkup.

[Ed U]

12:21 PM on 01/12/2012

Voting for the lesser of two evils is voting for evil.

[thomascini12]

08:55 PM on 01/13/2012

that's a great view!!

[snapper123]

02:48 PM on 01/13/2012

I am beginning to believe that going to the polls is not as important as what I grew up believing. Obama and Romney are against medical marijuana. From polls I have seen the majority of Americans are in favor of medical pot. Our leaders are really not that much different in many ways as they do not listen or care what the people want. Obama seems to cater to Wall Street and I don't expect Romney to be any different. Both talk different rhetoric but when it is all said and done they both are both part of the 1% and cannot be trusted. Maybe a wasted vote for Ron Paul will send some type of message but I know it won't.

[Maxwell Silver]

06:50 PM on 01/11/2012

He's unaware of the hemp industry... WOW.

[thomascini12]

08:54 PM on 01/13/2012

how does he think rope is made ?

[Maxwell Silver]

01:14 AM on 01/14/2012

With prayer. Or cash.

[marijobama]

03:26 PM on 01/11/2012

"Marijuana policy doesn't appear to be an issue Romney follows closely." He is likely to be the repub nominee, and I think we'll see, once he's on the campaign trail, that there are lots of issues Romney doesn't follow closely.

[Sam D man]

03:14 PM on 01/11/2012

Any question that is bound to be of social nature is likely to be duck by Termitte Romney.

[dbrett480]

01:40 PM on 01/11/2012

Romney is right not to address this issue. In the vast array of important issues affecting our country, medical marijuana doesn't even rank.

[jcsimpson06]

12:38 PM on 01/12/2012

Maybe not Medical Marijuana in its own right (though never discount civil liberties as unimportant) but the Drug War as a whole is.

Because of the Drug War, we are the number one country in imprisonment, have devastated many poor urban areas populated by minorities, and basically destroyed Mexico. Not too mention how much they violate civil liberties.

And the fact that the man has no idea what industrialized hemp is, when until the 30s it was a widely used product, show immense ignorance of history. Which isn't really that surprising.

[JUSTANOTHERLAMOM]

11:37 PM on 01/12/2012

And further, these are some of the reasons we are broke. We have an entire decades long,country-wide bloated bureaucracy solely for the unnecessary purpose of policing people's personal habits and punishing them for doing things to themselves that we don't like!

[Phil DeBowl]

12:17 PM on 01/11/2012

DON'T BE A MIT-WIT,a vote for romney is a vote to continue the failed war on drugs.