CNBC hosted the latest Republican debate on the campus of University of Colorado-Boulder on Wednesday night, giving the top-tier GOP candidates an opportunity to square off in prime time. However for the marijuana reform advocates who may have tuned in hoping to hear some discussion about cannabis, there wasn’t much news made.
Even though the debate was held in one of the first states to legalize marijuana, and even though the debate lasted over two hours, only one marijuana related question was asked.
Ohio Governor John Kasich was asked by CNBC’s Carl Quintanilla about whether he supported marijuana legalization in his state, to which Kasich responded that he didn’t support legalization because he thinks it sends “mixed signals” to kids about drugs.
Watch the exchange courtesy of CNBC below:
News flash Governor Kasich: We are already sending mixed signals to kids by prohibiting the use of a plant that is objectively safer than legal drugs like alcohol, tobacco, and pharmaceuticals. If you are worried about protecting kids from marijuana, then you should be supporting the regulation of marijuana. Drug dealers don’t check ID. Prohibition has failed. Regulation works.
