Pete Guither details so-stupid-it’s-funny testimony from an ONDCP official at a hearing called by the Alaska state senate. After the state’s Supreme Court ruled that possessing small amounts of marijuana ought not be a criminal offense. That honked off conservative Gubnah’ Frank Murkowski, who wants the legislature to pass a bill declaring the drug “dangerous.” As such, an ONDCP official offered the following testimony, via telephone:

Researcher David Murray of the White House’s Office on National Drug Control Policy told a Senate committee that marijuana users develop serious cases of psychosis and other problems from inhaling doses of carcinogenic chemicals.

“This is a dirty, dirty drug,” Murray said. He testified via phone at the request of Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli, who is spearheading the governor’s bill.

Fielder said smoking marijuana leads to violent behavior down the road. “If I smoke marijuana, I may not be led to rob a store. But I can lose my job and then be motivated to steal,” he said.

The ONDCP really is a caricature of itself. To their credit, several local Republican politicians have expressed opposition to the bill (as have lots of Democrats and Greens). Murkowski obviously still hasn’t kicked the case of Potomac Fever he caught during his stint as a U.S. Senator. There must be more important items on the to-do list of governing Alaska than arresting adults for smoking small amounts of marijuana.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 24th, 2005 at 7:47 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.