McCain on Burma, Medical Marijuana

Nick Gillespie | October 1, 2007

In a Boston Globe round-up on politics, that paper notes that former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) is not going to run for president (thereby depriving the race of a onetime beach-volleyball-loving advocate of the death penalty for drug dealers) and that Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is going into overdrive touting his opposition to Iraq.

And that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is both pushing to take his No Surrender tour to Burma and that medical marijuana advocates are all wet:

In a 90-minute town hall meeting in Derry, N.H., McCain also challenged a woman in a wheelchair who said she needed medical marijuana to withstand the pain of her ailments.

"Every town hall meeting I have, someone shows up and advocates for medical marijuana, and, by the way, in all due respect, alleges that we are arresting the dead and the dying, and I still have not seen any evidence of that," McCain told his questioner.

More here.

McCain should get out more often. And while he's at it, he might bother explaining why his stance on medical marijuana has changed so rapidly. Earlier this year, he was all for letting the states decide. Now he's not.