New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Calls Legalizing Marijuana “Beyond Stupidity”

New Jersey legislators are preparing a push for recreational cannabis legalization in the 2018 midterm elections, but if they want to bring legal weed to the Garden State, they’ll need to oust Governor Chris Christie first.

According to NJ.com, Governor Christie spoke yesterday at a forum on substance abuse in Princeton, NJ where he restated his outdated views on cannabis legalization.

Christie was at the forum to address the state’s opioid epidemic, a scourge that President Trump has picked Christie to combat nationally. But despite the country’s continued struggle with prescription pills and heroin addiction, it didn’t take long for Governor Christie to go off on a diatribe about the “dangers” of legal weed.

"We are in the midst of the public health crisis on opiates,” Christie told the forum. "But people are saying pot's OK. This is nothing more than crazy liberals who want to say everything's OK. Bologna.”

The Governor went on to call the state’s legalization efforts “beyond stupidity” and chide local legislators Nick Scutari and Steve Sweeney, and Phil Murphy (Christie’s presumed Democratic successor in the upcoming Gubernatorial election), all of who are pushing for an end to marijuana prohibition. 

"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."

And while that plan may actually be more successful than the current method of locking addicts up and throwing away the key, it is also not even close to what New Jersey’s legalization advocates are proposing. 

"If he's gonna say this is stupid, I'm going to say those comment are idiotic," State Senator Scutari said about Christie’s fear-mongering. "To try to draw some kind of nexus between the two is ridiculous, misplaced, and unscientific."

The good news is that if New Jersey residents do decide to pass recreational cannabis legalization in 2018, it won’t cross Christie’s desk. With his second term up this year, a new Governor will be in charge of the Garden State by then – and hopefully, whoever that person is, they understand the difference between pharmaceutically produced heroin and locally grown cannabis.