Governor Schwarzenegger on Marijuana: It's Not a Drug, It's a Leaf!

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger made newsthis week when the Associated Press reported an interview Schwarzenegger did with the British edition of GQ where he said marijuana is not a drug, it's a leaf. The Governor's press secretary quickly tried to do damage control and claim that he was joking and made the comments in a lighthearted context. This is not the first time that the Governator has had to address marijuana. There is the famous scene in the documentary Pumping Iron where he smokes a joint on screen.

America (and Arnold) has a paradoxical relationship with marijuana. Tens millions of Americans have smoked or continue to smoke marijuana. Arnold's reefer smoking in Pumping Iron not only didn't hurt him when running for Governor, it probably helped him. And Schwarzenegger is far from being in the minority of elected officials who have smoked marijuana. Many successful politicians have admitted to smoking marijuana, including Al Gore, Barack Obama, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and Newt Gingrich to name just a few.

Marijuana smoking is often portrayed throughout pop-culture, like movies and music, in a positive light. Marijuana use does not usually preclude someone from running for office. There are millions who think that heroin and cocaine are real drugs, but marijuana is just a leaf. However, the war on marijuana is very real. According to FBI statistics, about 800,000 of the roughly 1.8 million annual drug arrests are for marijuana -- 88 percent for possession alone. While getting busted smoking a joint may not land you in jail for a serious amount of time, the collateral consequences are very serious. A drug offense, including marijuana possession, will make you ineligible for finical aid for school. Smoking marijuana can also keep you from dozens of others professions that drug test their employees.

I appreciate the Governor's candor and even humor when talking about marijuana. But if he wants to live up to his image of an action hero who has the courage to take on the hard issues, he could start by going after the irrational and inhumane war on marijuana, which he knows is a joke.

Comments

[WorkingClass]

The war on drugs proved that Americans dont give a shit about the constitution. So now we have the war on terra and live in a police state.

[TheQuestion]

If the politicians are serious about cutting the cost of government - this would be a good place to look.

[MickaloYaYa]

Folks you can get urine cleaning alternatives at any drug or pipe shop. Cleans out your systems in 24 hours and you can pass any drug test. Check it out it works and never lose another job because of drug screening. Just tell them you can't make there appointment but will be glad to set the appointment a day or two later after your brother, sister, mother or aunt mabel gets out of the hospital.

[TWOSHORT]

Drunks don't have too pass piss test! and they kill harm and abuse

[Changeizgood]

Oh yeah, I forgot, my sister was trying to start a family and she stayed so wound up after work with the house and paying bills she was like a chicken with her head off.
She got depressed because after six months of trying she still hadn't had any luck.

I prescribed a relaxing method guaranteed to make her more suceptable to relaxation.
1 8oz glass of Gallor Burgundy wine and one to two joints. The following month we were looking at baby clothes.
I'm what you may call a fertile myrtle. I had to remove my reproductive system to keep from getting pregnant, and enjoy the company of my husband only, after I had the amount of children I wanted.
Six of mine and three of his.

[iheartsmartpeople]

Actually, it's not a leaf, it's a flower - but whatever - we know what he meant. I agree that the amount of money, law enforcement resources and general time wasted on petty weed crimes is a complete joke. But I guess since there are so many pot smokers, it's an easy way to make it look like the war on drugs is getting somewhere? based on sheer volume of arrests alone?

[AgathaPaige]

"Tens millions of Americans have smoked or continue to smoke marijuana."

Are you kidding? There are that many proactive potheads in America and not even a remote chance in hell of changing the laws? What's up with that? Where's the "UNITED" in these United States?

[sing together now] C'mon people now... Everybody! Try to legalize marijuana right now!

[oldpotsmuggler]

The Indictment in my smuggling case specifically references 26,000 pounds of Colombian pot that was seized on a shrimp boat. There were some seeds and stems, but, yeah, this was still pretty much 26,000 pounds of leafs.

One small unit of pot is clearly zero harm, and few normally intelligent people will dispute the point. Likewise 26,000 units of zero harm pot is still zero harm. "Decriminalizing" is one approach, but full blown legalization is even more intellectually logical. The door has been cracked open already because of the cannabis co-ops and it now needs to be slammed completely shut again, or we need to acknowledge that there is no place to go except forward. Once people are growing the stuff "legally" inside this country there is simply not going to be any feasible way to mount an effective law enforcement campaign against weed. We now have the specter of some people getting visciously punished for doing the same thing that others are able to do with impunity. We're now forty years past the sixties and if pot was going to do damage to our society there surely would have been manifestations of that by. The drug warriors have hurt us immensely but the good, sweet, simple little plant has done nothing but continue to dispense its various blessings.

[Changeizgood]

Hear! Hear!
Forty years later and still not a shread of proof of the harm.

Just another prison free labor scheme on the youth to keep the free labor going.

They even take their right to vote, making the voting system uneven. Would they take the vote of someone who drinks or has a drunk driving conviction? No
And Alcohol and drunk driving kill 350,000 people per year.

If they can't tax it they criminalize it.
You can't tax dill, ginseng, garlic or most other herbs unless they are used in the foods we buy. If they would legalize it, we would be out of debt. Why would you make us have to go underground on the black market when you can come out of debt, heal a lot of sick people who suffer from chemo and stop alot of the depression an anger that most side effect medications present on some people.

Legalize the herb, it's not criminal. PUT AN AGE LIMIT ON IT LIKE CIGARETTES OR ALCOHOL, but stop locking people up for taking a toke or two.

[iburl]

Ahnuld should start by commuting the sentences of the (no doubt) millions of californians currently in Jail for leaves. Oh, that's right, he's a republican, and their compassion for drug users stops at their own bloodstream, and certianly does not extend to brown people.

[realist333]

The "War On Drugs" is as unwinnable as the "War On Terror."
No one quarrels with the motives. We don't want nationwide drug abuse. We don't want international terrorism. But we can't fight a "war" with either of them.
The real foe in the drug trade is organized crime. The government of the Netherlands is showing how to defeat drug criminals by forcing them into bankruptcy. They "tolerate" (but have not "legalized") cannabis by allowing it to be produced and sold under conditions set by government, not organized crime. Presto! There's no longer money to be made in the illicit cannabis biz. As a result both "soft" and "hard" drug crime rates have plummeted in the Netherlands.
Terrorism is a tougher challenge but the strategy is the same. Take the game away from the crooks by addressing the causes.

[biznobar]

It isn't the boomers fault nor does general acceptance of the leaf have any bearing on things. THC stays in your body for 30 days after use. And although it's effects disappear in a matter of hours, it shows up in your urine for 30 days. So insurance companies have an easy excuse to disallow claims of all sorts. If you are in a car accident even if it is obviously not your fault, show a trace and you don't get compensated. Same with health insurance, life insurance, any kind of coverage where they can get a pee sample before a claim. And you don't even have to have smoked it yourself. If you were playing cards with friends who were smoking, it's in your system. Sorry, this law will never be overturned.

[Emmagoldmanbabe]

If we freed up all the funds spent on keeping pot smokers in jail, we could surely fund SCHIP....

I've never heard of anyone going on a pot "bender" and beating up his kids or shooting up a neighborhood.

[zizyphus]

I agree with the author. Arnold probably knows that drug trafficking in this country is run by the white collar elite, who make money on it, then watch their private prison and security companies stock soar as thousands of poor people go to jail for for using drugs, mostly minorities.

It is time we stop jailing persons for using drugs, and focus on getting all the crooks out of the top levels of government. For a look at how the systems operate, read Dark Alliance by Gary Webb, his expose of the Iran/Contra drugs for weapons scam. Watch out, illusions may disappear.

[BBackSoon]

Wouldn"t you have thought that when the boomers came to power something would have changed? I guess they were right after all, Never trust anyone over 30!

[speakyourmind]

I could not possibly disagree with you more. Arnold is right. It's a plant, nothing more. The fact that alcohol is legal and continues to keep killing people is apparently OK with your types.

[Changeizgood]

My husband has deteriorating disk and Oxycontin is the only pain med they can prescribe to stpop the sciatic nerve pains from shooting down his right leg imobilizing him from walking for six to seven months, only thing is he has to take three to dull the pain to an ache.

After several lower back pain(kidneys) attacks from the oxyicontins, I began to wonder about kidney damage which is prevelent as a side effect in people that don't hydrate or drink enough water daily. That's my husband, he doesn't like the taste of the water we have to drink and we can't afford the bottle water with a family of seven.

So when this occurs, he uses pot to stop both the disk pain and reduce kidney damage. It doesn't take as much for him to get out of bed in the cold mornings, (he as arthritis too,along with the five disk deteriorated) A cup of coffee and a toke works to get him on his way to work.
I've smoked pot since I was in my late thirties when I had a early hiysterectomy and menopause was hitting me. Stopped all the madness.

So I see no harm and have all A students or B+ averages as children and my husband and I have more patience when listening to the multiple personalities coming from all nine children on holidays. It's like a mild sedative, or a glass of dinner wine, preferably Gallo Burgundy.

I have stomach ulcers from a traumatic childhood from a single alcoholic parent who was a perfectionist with picks in the family.

I don't drink, so how do I spell relief
Take a toke, and relax.