Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

November 29, 2004

Oops

Filed under: Government,Society-Culture — Bunker @ 11:13 am

Neal Boortz is a supporter of legalizing not only “medical marijuana,” but eliminating the drug laws completely. Today, at a time when the US Supreme Court is hearing arguments for and against, Boortz was in full bloom on the issue–until one caller came along to deflate him completely.

Boortz had listened to several callers tell the tale of how great marijuana was in helping one of their loved ones deal with pain. Everyone was patting themselves on the back for how tolerant they were. Then, one man skillfully walked Boortz along the primrose path. “My concern is where will this end? Is it okay for a minor to use it?” and his questions came on along that vein. Boortz was adamant that the slippery slope the man described would never go so far as he suggested. Then the man asked, “What if my grandmother, dying of cancer, wanted to smoke cigarettes in the hospital because that made her feel better?”

Uh oh…

Boortz: “Uh, well, cigarettes are a health hazard.”

Boortz, the libertarian, would begrudge a dying woman a cigarette, but would be quite pleased if she smoked one made from marijuana.

5 Comments

  1. Well, I’m a libertarian (little l) who favors decriminalization, and I would have no problem with her smoking a cigarette, or drinking a pint of moonshine, or whatever else makes her comfortable. Having been with a family member who died in hospice (thankfully, as opposed to the hospital) I am a full advocate of letting a dying person do whatever they want, as long as it doesn’t hurt someone else.

    Comment by Phelps — November 29, 2004 @ 1:54 pm

  2. That’s why Neal’s response shocked me. He is a libertarian more than a Libertarian. Yet his knee-jerk reaction was as I related.

    Comment by Bunker — November 29, 2004 @ 2:53 pm

  3. Either Boortz was being facetious or he had a major league brain spasm on the air. It can happen to anyone, I suppose.

    Principled consistency about these things is a good idea — but let’s remember, too, that when the subject is as emotionally charged as drug use, abstract arguments about rights or externalities seldom convince anyone. Most people (88% here in NY) are against the use of the recreational drugs out of simple revulsion. That revulsion might be in large measure a product of prolonged, intensified propagandization, but it’s nonetheless real.

    Comment by Francis W. Porretto — November 29, 2004 @ 3:55 pm

  4. Hey all the hospital has to do is establish a smoking area, which keeps the smoke from affecting anyone else. No biggie.

    Comment by Bubba Bo Bob Brain — November 29, 2004 @ 7:28 pm

  5. My cousin John died 6 years ago in Amsterdam. Cocaine cardiac arrest….age 42. Dead yes, but hey, what the hell, at least there he wasn’t a criminal

    Comment by Wallace-Midland, Texas — November 29, 2004 @ 8:19 pm

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