Reports (M) The New York Times: "Pat Robertson, the televangelist who once ran for president, said on his show 'The 700 Club' that he thought marijuana should be legalized."Pat Robertson's exact words on the issue of decriminalizing marijuana were: "I’m not exactly for the use of drugs, don’t get me wrong, but I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot, that kind of thing, it’s just, it’s costing us a fortune and it’s ruining young people. Young people go into prisons, they go in as youths and come out as hardened criminals. That’s not a good thing."
You can watch the full video of Pat Robertson explaining his surprising new stance on marijuana legalization below:
Though of course CBN News is backpedaling with the following statement:
"Dr. Robertson did not call for the decriminalization of marijuana. He was advocating that our government revisit the severity of the existing laws because mandatory drug sentences do harm to many young people who go to prison and come out as hardened criminals. He was also pointing out that these mandatory sentences needlessly cost our government millions of dollars when there are better approaches available. Dr. Robertson’s comments followed a CBN News story about a group of conservatives who have proven that faith-based rehabilitation for criminals has resulted in lower repeat offenders and saved the government millions of dollars. Dr. Robertson unequivocally stated that he is against the use of illegal drugs."
