Governor Choom Nasty

First, Governor Messinger Dayton says he won’t back a medical marijuana bill that doesn’t have the support of law enforcement – which is a little like saying you won’t back a seat belt bill unless it has the support of realtors. 

Then, Governor Messinger Dayton tells the mother of an epileptic kid to go buy illegal weed while the Legislature muddles through debate on various medical chiba bills.   The penalties, even if she’s caught, would be pretty minimal, after all (unless some cop or prosecutor gets it in her head that mom is dealing, which could result in a SWAT team beating down her door, shooting her dogs, and leaving the family handcuffed on their lawn while their house is ransacked and then forfeited to the police department long before any trial would occur – but let’s not get bogged down in details).

And now, Governor Messinger Dayton is using the DFL’s pals in the media to undercut the parents who went to the media in the first place. 

Or to try to, anyway:

Dayton’s account of the meeting is simply not true, say two activists who were there. One of them, Patrick McClellan, 47, who has muscular dystrophy, told PIM early Friday afternoon, “I was sitting right next to him when he said it. He said that driving back from Colorado is not like going out of the country, there are no checkpoints with drug dogs at state lines.

“I said that bringing the drug back from Colorado would be a federal offense, and he said, ‘I live in the real world, and no one would prosecute someone who was just trying to help their child.’

McClellan continued: “He told me, also, to get it on the street. His logic was, it’s just a petty misdemeanor. I told him that if I had more than an ounce and a half, it would be illegal for me to try to use a medical defense for that possession. He snapped at me that I was just making up hypotheticals.

“I have an uncle who is a retired judge in Fremont, Nebraska, and I told him what the governor said [about transporting marijuana or marijuana derivatives from Colorado]. He said he couldn’t believe that the governor of Minnesota was encouraging me to break the drug laws in his [the uncle’s] state.”

Never mind what you think about marijuana laws (I think pot should be legalized, but so should maceing hackey-sack-playing, Dave-Matthews-listening, hemp-wearing stoners) – this is not the behavior of someone who belongs in, er, high office.

18 thoughts on “Governor Choom Nasty

  1. This just goes to show the shallow depth of the Medicated One’s intellect, rational, and morality.

  2. Once again, the country laughs at the stupidity of Minnesotans that vote for moonbats. A friend of mine was here on business last week and spent the weekend. He asked me what the hell was wrong with our governor and why was he speaking to the media while he was drunk and/or high? When I replied that was his normal state, he just shook his head.

  3. I personally like M-Day. He seems like a nice guy. Especially when you compare him to people like Al “lying liars” Franken and Keith Ellison. To say nothing of D-bags like Fat Dave Thune.
    Bosshoss, so what is it about this liberal wealthy blue blood who has never worked a day in his life at a real-world job that makes him come across a little goofy? I think he is a bit dim witted.

  4. Again, who is “law enforcement”? There is no one, agreed upon by all, entity who should speak with authority for the entire group; from newest patrol officer in a three-person, out-state PD, to the chief law enforcement officer (CLEO) of MN’s largest agency; (MPLS?) The political hacks chosen by the governor as spokespersons are just that. Do you have a spokesperson for your personal group? Whites, Accountants, Italians, Men, Women, etc. Some do, but lots don’t. My question is rhetorical as I agree w/ Mr. Berg as to the invalidity of the opinion of such a group on this issue, even if a valid group did exist.

    Governor Dayton’s foolish advice includes two additional cautions. First, the dope peddlers that the uninitiated (like caregivers to seriously ill loved ones) might encounter are not likely to be loveable, happy, Tommy Chong-like old hippies. In reality, they would just as happily beat, rob, and rape you as actually give you the MJ you are seeking. Also, don’t get too attached to your 50K+ handicap-accessible van (assuming you bought a cheap one), either. Once you’re robbed, beaten and raped in it, it will likely disappear, too.

    Additionally, even if you are successful in following Governor Dayton’s paternal advice, you most likely will have just enriched any number of criminal enterprises. A while back, Cheech Marin sold-out to a conglomerate. Can you spell C-A-R-T-E-L? Your miserable few bucks won’t get them too far, but they make their bottom line on volume, repeat customers, and the additional “service charges” noted in the paragraph above …

    I think we all would not need to rely on the governor’s advice to do the right thing under present circumstances. However, even if well-intentioned, Governor Dayton’s suggestion ranks right up their with Vice President Biden’s theory on weapons selection. I really don’t believe the governor is a bad guy, but holy cats … doesn’t he have a handler (or caregiver) to help him with this stuff?

  5. It’s too bad this guy didn’t have the thought to loudly say “Excuse me. I’d like everyone present to understand that the governor of the state of Minnesota just encouraged me to BREAK FEDERAL LAW. Just to get that clear.”

    Or something along those lines.

    If I were in the same situation, I doubt I would have been quick thinking enough (as well as had enough intestinal fortitude at that given moment) to think of that.

  6. If he were serious, he’d just publicly instruct the MN AG to use prosecutorial discretion and not bring any marijuana cases. Heck, it works for Obama, why wouldn’t it work for Governor Chicken?

  7. Chuck; when he was doing his presser, the only way that I could understand his mumbling, was that there was closed captioning on. Jeff (my friend) observed the same thing.

  8. “Governor Messinger Dayton says he won’t back a medical marijuana bill that doesn’t have the support of law enforcement ”

    – and I want to know why we’re supposed to give a rat’s patootie about what the hired help thinks about proposed legislation.

  9. It depends on how much you have, but simple possession of a “small amount” (about 42 grams) of MJ is technically not a “crime.” It’s a petty misdemeanor, like a parking ticket, and is not even an arrestable offense. Maximum fine’s about $300 and they usually offer some type of drug education in lieu of it.

    Consequently, I suppose the governor could claim that he meant a small amount and therefore wasn’t recommending the unfortunate parent commit a “crime.” A bit of a stretch, but it sure beats lying or the “I don’t recall” defense.

  10. If I had to wager a guess it would be that this was Mumbles feeble attempt at being the “cool” governor…like the parent that would buy their teenager and their teenager’s friends beer…and he never expected it to go public.

    Now, perhaps that this likely cost him support from the Minnesota chapter of NORML, we won’t have to suffer another term of the Governor that makes Ventura look positively brilliant.

  11. I am baffled by the denial of anything “medical.” Given the plethora of much stronger legal substances (morphine, Demerol, etc.), why not allow the prescription of medical MJ under the same or similar strict restrictions the other lawful narcotics are dispensed under? If someone has short-term, terminal whatever, I’d support legally prescribed crack cocaine if it made the patient feel better to any degree.

  12. If he were serious, he’d just publicly instruct the MN AG to use prosecutorial discretion and not bring any marijuana cases. Heck, it works for Obama, why wouldn’t it work for Governor Chicken?

    Probably for the same reason that he doesn’t instruct the State Auditor or Secretary of State how to do their jobs – they’re separate elected offices.

  13. – and I want to know why we’re supposed to give a rat’s patootie about what the hired help thinks about proposed legislation.

    Yes because we wouldn’t want the chief executive to consult with and get the buy-in of the people who are actually tasked with enforcing and dealing with the effects of new laws before he signs on to them. Especially not when other States that have started down this path seem to have all sorts of new crime problems that I’m sure Dayton would not to have during his term of office.

  14. I am baffled by the denial of anything “medical.”

    And no doubt that’s the reaction supporters of Granny Clampett’s Spring Tonic, I mean “medical marijuana” are hoping for. Tommy Chong didn’t work so well as a the face of drug legalization so now we’re going to convince people that it’s for sick kids and find a few mothers who can cry on cue during a press conference in the hopes that public policy can be changed by emotional blackmail.

    I’m generally with Mitch that I’m sympathetic to some arguments for drug legalization for adults with a few caveats (users are ineligible for any form of public assistance, strict liability for torts and crimes committed while impaired and freedom of association) but what we’re getting here is simply a retread of the “it’s for the children” line that was popularized in the 1990s. This week it’s being used for “medical marijuana,” next week it will be for “anti-bullying” legislation or amnesty for illegal aliens so that we don’t “break up families.”

    When we adopt the same destructive tactics of the Left for our own causes by pushing for policies based purely on emotions, we legitimize those tactics and make them all the more potent when the other side uses them. And they will use them – more often and with greater effect then we’ll be able to because most of what conservatives advocate for requires people to think beyond their knee-jerk emotional reaction. The short-term gain of “medical marijuana” isn’t worth the long-term price we pay by validating the tactics being used to bring it about.

  15. So it seems that the “high” has been proven to be less dangerous than alcohol. Have never heard of a fatal overdose on pot, and if there have been fatal auto accidents directly attributed to the effects of pot they are, at least very few, at best vastly under-reported.

    One could argue, again, of the harmful effects of smoking pot. Then, either obviously less harmful than tobacco, or as the case above, vastly under-reported.

    So one would think this a liberals wet-dream, snag all the potheads politically, not to mention the increased revenue and regulation.

    At heart, I have always been a conservative/libertarian. This, to me, is a no brainer…take the criminal element out of pot trafficking and allow it to be purchased legally in the free market for whatever reason you want, medical or recreational. While I don’t quite appreciate the revenue/regulation part…the latter certainly would serve to make pot potentially safer.

    Plus, if Mumbles were to toke up before press conferences he might be a little more coherent.

  16. Regarding law enforcement, the one complication I’ve heard is that drug sniffing dogs are trained for dope. So legalizing it overall would then require their replacement, unless you’re willing to curtail the effort to keep cocaine, heroin, and the like.

  17. Actually, bb, I brought this topic up just now, to someone I know who is rabidly libertarian (his idea of the bill of rights is it only needs to stop after the first 5 words: congress shall make no laws). He made a good point. If the dog is hitting (as a result of searching), either A) a warrant has already been obtained, or B) permission has been given by the individual being searched. If he does find pot, and only pot, the officer can just ignore it. If he finds pot and something else that is still illegal, he already had either judicial consent or consent of the accused to do the search, and can arrest the person based on possession of the illegal substance, and the MJ now is of no more consequence than a pack of cigs (assuming they are over 18, and in CO or WA at this time).

  18. “Especially not when other States that have started down this path seem to have all sorts of new crime problems”
    – I’ll believe that when I see a credible citation.

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