Ron Paul, Wednesday on Fox Business’ The Independents, praises state governments’ nullification of marijuana prohibition. Paul, though, proceeds to warn against the taxation motivation behind liberalizing marijuana laws, noting that “if you had a libertarian society, you wouldn’t be legalizing something just so you could tax it.” Paul, who is chairman and founder of RPI, also addresses in the interview politicians who perceive ending the drug war as “a risky political position to take.” This concern is overblown, suggests Paul, explaining “One of the types of achievements I had was running in a southern district, a Bible Belt district, and promoting getting rid of the drug war, and [that] never hurting me having run against Democrats and Republicans that used that as the big issue when I was trying to get back into the Congress in 1996.” Paul, who had served in the US House in the late 1970s and early 1980s, returned to the House after defeating an incumbent Republican representative and a Democrat challenger in 1996.
Paul spoke more regarding the drug war Tuesday on the Ron Paul Channel, welcoming Nobel Prize winning economists calling for ending the war on drugs. Paul, though, takes issue with suggesting a reallocation of drug war resources into “harm reduction and treatment” activities. While Paul says he would prefer the government spend money on drug related education and medical services than on “police activity and locking up people and having drug busts and SWAT teams out there,” he explains the better approach is for the government to keep out of controlling drugs and stop acting like it is our parent.