Ohio Governor John Kasich was on Stephen Colbert’s show recently, and was grilled about his opposition to marijuana legalization. I had been meaning to post this video earlier, but the combination of being in Las Vegas this last week in addition to an already chaotic schedule proved to be too much. But the exchange is so good that I felt it still needed to be posted for those that haven’t seen it.
Essentially, Ohio’s Governor argued that marijuana legalization sends the wrong message to kids because we ‘can’t tell them that drugs are bad, but this one drug is OK so it’s legal.’ That drew a quick response from Colbert who pointed out that alcohol is legal, which resulted in a loud applause from the crowd. Governor Kasich tried to dodge the question, going on various tangents. But every time there was Colbert to call him out. It was a fantastic interview. I would love to see Colbert debate Kevin Sabet.
My favorite part of the interview was when Colbert asked Governor Kasich if he had ever consumed marijuana, to which he answered in the affirmative. Colbert then asked him if he had ever been caught by the police, to which Kasich said no. Colbert then point blank asked him if he thought he would still have made it all the way to being the Governor of Ohio if he had been caught. Kasich tried a cheeky attempt at making a wise crack, which fell completely flat. This is a very serious issue, and I’m glad that Colbert took the Governor to task. How sad is it that a Governor tries to crack jokes about a serious public policy issue, and it takes a comedian to bring him back to reality. It’s a very sad version of irony if you ask me. Below is the video:
