Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Jay Leno: Don't legalize pot!

Part 2 of Tavis Smiley's interview with Jay Leno aired last night (listen to the MP3 here), and as on Monday night, there wasn't much new material -- he told that "mother shushing the audience at Carnegie Hall" anecdote in his 1997 autobiography, Leading With My Chin. But somehow, a discussion of Cash for Clunkers turned into Leno (who has said he has never had an alcoholic beverage in his entire life) giving his opinion on legalizing marijuana. He's against it:

Tavis: I thought about you with that Cash for Clunkers program. You don't have any clunkers to trade in because all your stuff is priceless.

Jay: No, no, it's not priceless. I think it's good and it stimulates the economy and that's wonderful. But I just go with the next step. We've got all this cheese, how about, eat cheese, get a check? Sooner or later we're going to have to produce something. It's like, they want to legalize marijuana. I'm against it not because of marijuana. Just the fact that, we have legalized gambling. There's no product. We don't make anything anymore. If times are good, and there's plenty of money, then legalize marijuana. But as a fundraising source? That's what California needs, more high people. To me, I don't get it. I would like to see factories make a product the rest of the world wants to buy, and then other people will come in and make products to augment that product, that's how you raise tax revenue. To me, constant sin taxes, gambling, drinking, how about prostitution? Where's your base?

Note to Jay: if American factories start to produce a product "the rest of the world wants to buy," the factory owner will shortly fire all the American workers and outsource production to a cheaper factory overseas. Also, you'd think a former Doritos spokesman would be friendlier to the idea of legalizing pot.

2 comments :

  1. Santiago R. said...

    Legalize it! (eventho I cant smoke it anymore...:::cries:::).

  2. SunflowerPipes said...

    There are many persuasive arguments on why America should legalize marijuana, and the reasons are sound, but the fact that many millions of Americans have used pot has not translated into real political pressure on the people who can change the laws. One of the problems inhibiting legalization is that people that smoke a glass pipe are not considered serious or mature. It is This stigma that scares many pot users to hide that they smoke pot. Therefore the Reality of who smokes pot and how much the smoke is very different than it seems. The last three presidents were admitted pot users and by my Understanding the same is probably true of the first three presidents as well. Marijuana Legislation is very serious and has everything with how we define what it means to be American. What credence do we as Americans give the rights of the individual to the pursuit of happiness as well as a right to privacy? In the end it is up to us to be public about our choices and to Voice our opinions to the ones that ultimately decide what the rules are. Every hand written Letter that makes it to a representative is considered to be the voice of a thousand people who did not take the time to write. Send an email, send a letter make a phone call and get counted.
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