Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert has just put on a supremely entertaining debate over California's Proposition 19 ballot fight to legalize marijuana for recreational use.
Before introducing his panelists, Prop 19 supporter and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and opponent Joseph Califano Jr. of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, the host of The Colbert Report framed the California issue as only he can.
"There is one candidate out there in this election who does not need my help, 'the Honorable Mary Jane Von Spliffenberg,' also known as California's Proposition 19 to legalize 'mari-ju-wana,' Colbert began. "If Proposition 19 were a human, it would be the most popular candidate in California."
He went on to marvel over the initiative to permit Californians to possess up to an ounce of pot, remarking: "An ounce of weed is enough to roll 60 joints. That's enough to give you 6,000 brilliant ideas that will seem stupid later."
And he flashed a Weed Wars blog post on medical marijuana physicians opposing the initiative.
"Thankfully, there is one group fighting legalization, the growers of medical marijuana and the doctors who prescribe it," Colbert said. He asserted that weed-recommending medical professionals "are adamant that pot should be used to treat only serious disorders like sleep apnea, tension headaches, nightmares, color blindness, hiccuping and writer's cramp - which you are especially at risk for if you're a doctor who writes weed prescriptions for anyone who has writer's cramp."
With Colbert as your host, let the debate begin.
View the full segment below:
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Proposition 19 - Joseph Califano & Gary Johnson | ||||
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