Schwarzenegger: 'time for debate'

At a news conference about public safety funding, the governor was asked whether it's time to legalize marijuana in light of a new Field Poll that said 56 percent of registered voters support legalizing and taxing marijuana to raise revenues.

"I think it's not time for that, but I think it's time for debate," Schwarzenegger said. "All those ideas of creating extra revenues, I'm always for an open debate on it. We ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana. What effect did it have on those countries? Are they happy with the decision? Or are they, for instance in Austria, unhappy? They rolled back some of the decisions that were made in European countries.

"I want to look at all that. It could very well be that everyone is happy with the decision and then we can look at that. If not, then we shouldn't do it. Just because of raising revenues, we have to be careful not to make mistakes at the same time." [emphasis added]

Uh huh. We have to be careful not to make mistakes, especially considering our current methodology is completely perfect. The war on drugs as it stands today is a 100% fool proof method for keeping kids safe, stopping the flow of illicit drugs into this country, and magically giving addicts a second chance. And because the war on drugs is a perfect gift from heaven, law enforcement never targets innocent people, wastes its time locking up non-violent offenders, or spends valuable resources trying to arrest its way into convincing people that drugs aren't fun. Oh, and because the war on drugs is a beautiful, shining example of the most exalted realms of human thought, you don't have to worry about Mexican drug gangs crossing the American border to set up shop a little closer to where the guns are frickin' super easy to get, and for cheap, yo.

Arnie's pontificating came in this context:

State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a San Francisco Democrat, said taxing marijuana at $50 per ounce would bring more than $1 billion a year to the state. Ammiano's bill is on hold in the state Legislature. He delayed seeking approval until next year.

So yeah, as long as other countries are not, you know, unhappy (because let's face it, the war on drugs is the happiest thing that has ever happened in the history of the whole entire concept of happiness), let's take a quick peek at how they do things, and maybe, like, make some cash off their stupid ideas, if it's convenient or something.