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Title: Gary Johnson: Gingrich ‘proposed the death penalty for marijuana’ (God How I Love the Newt)
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Published: Dec 12, 2011
Author: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/12/12/ga
Post Date: 2011-12-12 17:33:05 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 155
Comments: 10
Gary Johnson: Gingrich ‘proposed the death penalty for marijuana’ By David Edwards Monday, December 12, 2011 Print 55 Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. Topics: gary johnson ♦ Gingrich ♦ newt gingrich Over the weekend, struggling Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson reminded MSNBC viewers that GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich had once to called to punish some drug offenders with death. “Newt Gingrich, in 1997, proposed the death penalty for marijuana — for possession of marijuana above a certain quantity of marijuana,” Johnson explained. “And yet, he is among 100 million Americans who’ve smoked marijuana.” “I would love to have a discussion with him on the fact that he smoked pot, and under the wrong set of circumstance he proposed the death penalty for, potentially, something that he had committed. I have troubles with that,” he added. Johnson, a former New Mexico governor who has advocated for marijuana legalization since 1999, is at least partially correct about Gingrich’s position. As Speaker of the House, Gingrich introduced the “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996.” The bill would have required a “sentence of death for certain importations of significant quantities of controlled substances.” It would have applied to anyone convicted more than once of carrying 100 doses — or about two ounces — or marijuana across the border. Defendants would have had a window of 18 months to file their one and only appeal. “If you import a commercial quantity of illegal drugs, it is because you have made the personal decision that you are prepared to get rich by destroying our children,” the Georgia Republican said at a fundraiser for Rep. Charlie Norwood (R-GA) in 1995. “I have made the decision that I love our children enough that we will kill you if you do this.” “The first time we execute 27 or 30 or 35 people at one time, and they go around Colombia and France and Thailand and Mexico, and they say, ‘Hi, would you like to carry some drugs into the U.S.?’ the price of carrying drugs will have gone up dramatically.” U.S. law already allows the death penalty in the cases of large-scale drug operations — or continuing criminal enterprises — that result in murder. Gingrich charged in 1994 that 25 percent of President Bill Clinton’s White House staff used drugs, but at the same time admitted that he had also smoked pot 25 years earlier. “That was a sign we were alive and in graduate school in that era,” he explained. “See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral,” Gingrich reportedly told Wall Street Journal reporter Hilary Stout in 1996. “Now, it is illegal AND immoral. The law didn’t change, only the morality… That’s why you get to go to jail and I don’t.” Watch this video from MSNBC, broadcast Dec. 10, 2011.
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#1. To: All (#0)
Straight thinking Newt is just what the Repugs deserve to guide this nation back to morality. Yet another, Newt is also nuts. Ron Paul is the cure for this rampant insanity. Break the Conventions - Keep the Commandments - G.K.Chesterson I wonder what Newt's penalty would have been for Rush "Pills" Limbaugh, the hillbilly heroin king?
Salamander is about as dishonest and duplicitous as they come. I don't see how anyone with any iota of information on this creep's background could possibly support him for Dog Catcher let alone President. The solution to the problem of illegal drugs is to legalize them thus removing the monetary incentive for smugglers, and then promote treatment and avoidance. However, that makes too much sense to those who wish to control all aspects of our lives such as the little cretin called "Newt". Someone made an astute observation that made me think. This person said that if the determination being made about any number of things considered illegal these days such as smoking pot, or eating mushrooms or even having a garden, were simply between 2 or 3 people instead of some legislated mandate there's little question that everyone would do what they themselves decided and the other person or 2 could lump it. But, we tend to think that because some large number of people voted for or against something that the volume of persons voting makes a difference when it shouldn't. The fact that 10,000 people vote for something doesn't increase their individual or group authority nor does it decrease ones inherent rights. "Anyone intent upon achieving "smaller government" should consider quitting the current fraud."
In the absence of traditional or hereditary authority, we are left with majoritarian rule. Tyranny of one type or another is inevitable. You might as well get used to it.
Nope - Never "Anyone intent upon achieving "smaller government" should consider quitting the current fraud."
I sincerely admire your spirit and resolve. I see nothing but ugliness on the horizon.
Me too. The only means of turning things around (peacefully) is a united effort by a very large number of Americans. "Anyone intent upon achieving "smaller government" should consider quitting the current fraud."
Newt needs to practice the "Harold Washington" dance, and just drop dead....like a brick.
“See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral,” Gingrich reportedly told Wall Street Journal reporter Hilary Stout in 1996. “Now, it is illegal AND immoral. The law didn’t change, only the morality… That’s why you get to go to jail and I don’t.”
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
#2. To: tom007 (#0)
#3. To: tom007 (#0)
#4. To: tom007 (#0)
Gary Johnson: Gingrich ‘proposed the death penalty for marijuana’ (God How I Love the Newt)
#5. To: tom007 (#0)
#6. To: noone222 (#5)
The fact that 10,000 people vote for something doesn't increase their individual or group authority nor does it decrease ones inherent rights.
#7. To: randge (#6)
Tyranny of one type or another is inevitable. You might as well get used to it.
#8. To: noone222 (#7)
#9. To: randge (#8)
I see nothing but ugliness on the horizon.
#10. To: tom007 (#0)
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