Rand Paul Claims Marijuana Takes Away Your Incentive To Work

Last updated on March 27th, 2013 at 11:42 am

Sen. Rand Paul went on Fox News Sunday and told a pretty big lie about marijuana. He claimed, with zero evidence, that marijuana takes away your incentive to work.

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Transcript From Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: Let’s talk about the personal sphere, because, you would like to relax some of the laws for people who possess and are smoking marijuana. And you also in the Senate have voted against, in fact, to ban — rather, against a ban on synthetic recreational drugs.

Why are you more lenient on drug laws, sir?

PAUL: The main thing I’ve said is not to legalize them but not to incarcerate people for extended periods of time. So, I’m working with Senator Leahy. We have a bill on mandatory minimums.

There are people in jail for 37, 50, 45 years for nonviolent crimes. And that’s a huge mistake. Or prisons are full of nonviolent criminals.

I don’t want to encourage people to do it. I think even marijuana is a bad thing to do. I think it takes away your incentive to work and show up and do the things that you should be doing. I don’t think it’s a good idea.

I don’t want to promote that but I also don’t want to put people in jail who make the mistake. There are a lot of young people who do this and then later on in their 20s, they grow up and get married and they quit doing things like this, I don’t want to put them in jail and ruin their lives.

Look, the last two presidents could conceivably have been put in jail for their drug use, and I really think, you know, look what would have happened, it would have ruined their lives. They got lucky, but a lot of poor kids, particularly in the inner city, don’t get lucky. They don’t have good attorneys, and they go to jail for these things and I think it’s a big mistake.

It seems Rand Paul has bit of Mitt Romney in him, because the Kentucky senator is trying to be all things to all Republicans. Notice, Paul never mentioned anything about total decriminalization or legalization. To mention either would have immediately gotten him thrown to the back of the conservative bus. Just like with his immigration reform speech, Paul is trying to appeal to mainstream Republicans without losing his Libertarian supporters. In short, Rand Paul is trying to have it both ways.

Does Paul also think that alcohol is a bad thing to do too? Because it takes away the incentive to work just as much as marijuana does.(Being a senator from Kentucky, I doubt Paul will ever mouth a bad word about booze.)

It is common sense to believe that people who commit pot offenses should not be sitting in jail, but Paul doesn’t seem to possess the courage to take the next step. Paul stopped short of using his new national political fame to call for legalization. I hate to break it to the people who are infatuated with him, but Rand Paul is just another Republican wanna be.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association