On Monday night, New Jersey Governor and Donald Trump transition team member Chris Christie did his monthly “Ask the Governor” radio show on WKXW-FM in Trenton. Never one to mix words, the governor made a number of colorful comments, but none more so than when a caller asked him about his role as New Jersey’s foremost obstacle to the legalization of recreational marijuana. Christie not only had no qualms about admitting that he’s standing in the way of the pro-marijuana efforts, but admonished his opponents for pushing legislation that would bring in “blood money.”
The caller was interrupted by the governor when he suggested that the tax revenue could offset the gas tax that Christie recently raised by 23 cents per gallon. “Are you high right now?” Christie asked, saying the argument didn’t make sense. That’s when he pivoted to the evils of marijuana.
“To me, legalization of marijuana for tax purposes — and that’s the way people justify it because you can’t justify it anyway — it’s blood money,” Christie said. ” That’s what it is to me. I have watched too many kids start their addiction with alcohol and marijuana, and then move on to much more serious drugs. And every study shows that marijuana is a gateway drug.”
That last part is categorically not true. In fact, recent studies from the University of British Columbia and UC Irvine both concluded that marijuana may be an important tool in getting addicts off of harder drugs. In addition, searching for relevant studies on the National Institute of Health’s PubMed website using keywords like “marijuana gateway drug” finds many that reject the that theory.
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing that we spend in government that’s important enough to allow me to willfully poison our children for that money,” Christie continued. “That’s blood money. Now, I understand other states have decided the other way. You’re damn right I’m the only impediment. And I am going to remain the only impediment until January of 2018.”
[Photo: WKXW-FM YouTube screen grab]
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