Drew Carey: "Let's Make a Dope Deal!" *
Apparently when he's not busy calling guests down on "The Price Is Right," Drew Carey moonlights for the libertarian Reason Foundation, for which he has produced the following video in support of "medical" marijuana. (Local nerds take note: The video includes appearances from Sheriff Lee Baca's own personal flak, Steve Whitmore!)
What's funny about this video is that, once again, seriously ill people are trotted out in what is really just an effort to legalize pot wholesale. (The Reason libertarians would be happy to legalize all drugs for everyone, but of course the video makes no mention of that.) We are just shown sick, suffering people, and are told that these are the beneficiaries of "medicinal" marijuana.
But then we are taken into a marijuana bar, where we see the stuff doled on in a manner that's decidedly non-medicinal, with pot goodies and with the herb sold under brand names like "Friday Night Special." But really, this is just for sick people. It's medicine, we swear.
I write this, by the way, as someone who supports legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, and maybe even recreational ones, too. But I'm disgusted with how disingenuously this debate has played out, with the dopers using cancer patients as Trojan horses.
The dopers duped California, and it worked -- they got de-facto legalization. But in so doing, they squandered whatever credibility they ever once had.
(* "Let's Make a Dope Deal" is a classic Cheech & Chong bit. Listen to it here.)