NJ Governor Christie on Marijuana Legalization: “This is Beyond Stupidity”

It’s no secret that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is opposed to marijuana legalization. He has steadfastly opposed any effort at legalization in NJ and has vowed that it will not happen on his watch.

But it’s also no secret that Chris Christie loves to talk about cannabis. Given an opportunity he will go on at length about just how dangerous and ridiculous he thinks the whole notion is.

That’s exactly what happened last week when Gov. Christie was speaking at a forum on substance abuse hosted by the New Jersey Hospital Association in Princeton, NJ. “This is beyond stupidity,” the governor said of legalization, adding, “We are in the midst of the public health crisis on opiates. But people are saying pot’s OK. This is nothing more than crazy liberals who want to say everything’s OK.”

But Christie wasn’t done. He also took aim at politicians in New Jersey who favored legalization. “People like Nick Scutari and Steve Sweeney and Phil Murphy want to bring this poison, legalized, into this state under the premise that, well, it doesn’t matter because people can buy it illegally anyway,” Christie said. “Then why not legalize heroin? I mean, their argument fails just on that basis. Let’s legalize cocaine. Let’s legalize angel dust. Let’s legalize all of it. What’s the difference? Let everybody choose.”

That last statement alone shows Christie’s incredible ignorance about cannabis and shows why he should have no input into policy that surrounds it. The difference between cannabis and something like heroin is akin to the difference between drinking water and drinking bleach. If you drink a glass of water you’ll be fine; I would not recommend even a sip of the bleach, under any circumstances.

What you’ll notice if you listen to Christie talk about cannabis long enough is that the only tools at his disposal are debunked studies and long-disproven theories like marijuana being a “gateway” to harder drugs. That, and telling people that support legalization they are stupid and crazy.

But Christie wasn’t done in his speech in Princeton. He went on to wonder aloud what will happen when marijuana retail shops come to the suburbs, implying that people with higher incomes will balk at what they had no problem with as long as it stayed in the urban centers. “People aren’t going to scream when the first head shop opens in Newark or Paterson or Camden or Trenton,” Christie said. “But man, I can’t wait for the first one to open in Short Hills. … And what’s that mean? It’s OK to do this just in our city, with our urban population, but keep it away from our godforsaken suburbs?”

Christie 2nd term as NJ Governor is set to end in January; because of term limits he is not allowed to run again, at least not this time around. Nothing prohibits him from seeking a third term in the future, as long as it doesn’t run consecutive to his 2nd term. For his part, Christie has ruled out that possibility.

So, barring a post in the Trump Administration or a run for U.S. Senate, it looks like the long nightmare that is Chris Christie’s political career will soon be over.