Dilbert's Scott Adams: Obama's Medical Marijuana Crackdown Is a 'Firing Offense'
Scott Adams, creator of the workplace cartoon strip Dilbert, is endorsing Mitt Romney because of President Barack Obama's medical marijuana prosecutions. Excerpt from the Dilberter's blog:
[Obama] is putting an American citizen in jail for 10 years to life for operating medical marijuana dispensaries in California where it is legal under state law. And I assume the President - who has a well-documented history of extensive marijuana use in his youth - is clamping down on California dispensaries for political reasons, i.e. to get reelected. What other reason could there be?
One could argue that the President is just doing his job and enforcing existing Federal laws. That's the opposite of what he said he would do before he was elected, but lying is obviously not a firing offense for politicians.
Personally, I'd prefer death to spending the final decades of my life in prison. So while President Obama didn't technically kill a citizen, he is certainly ruining this fellow's life, and his family's lives, and the lives of countless other minor drug offenders. And he is doing it to advance his career. If that's not a firing offense, what the hell is?
Romney is likely to continue the same drug policies as the Obama administration. But he's enough of a chameleon and a pragmatist that one can't be sure. And I'm fairly certain he'd want a second term. He might find it "economical" to use federal resources in other ways than attacking California voters. And he is vocal about promoting states' rights, so he's got political cover for ignoring dispensaries in states where medical marijuana is legal.
So while I don't agree with Romney's positions on most topics, I'm endorsing him for president starting today. I think we need to set a minimum standard for presidential behavior, and jailing American citizens for political gain simply has to be a firing offense no matter how awesome you might be in other ways.
Whole thing here. Link via Walter Olson's Twitter feed.
Read former Reason editor Virginia Postrel's Q&A with Scott Adams from the February 1999 issue, plus some of our other Dilbertian content from the archives. And take time out of your busy voting (or non-voting!) schedule to re-read Jacob Sullum's classic October 2011 cover story "Bummer: Barack Obama turns out to be just another drug warrior."
Reason on the referenced Aaron Sandusky prosecution here, including this Reason.tv vid:
