Who?
Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)
LISTEN: Laslo & Lankford
Ask a Pol asks:
What are your thoughts on the DEA rescheduling marijuana?
Key Lankford:
“Terrible idea. It’s amazing to me the number of stories I’ve already read that this is Biden’s plan to be able to win the election is to get more people to smoke marijuana. I was like, okay, well, that’s quite a plan, ‘I can only win the election when more people smoke marijuana,’” Sen. Lankford exclusively tells Ask a Pol. “I think it’s a bad idea, and I think it sends all the wrong message about the drug use in our country.”
Caught our ear:
“We have all kinds of outside criminal organizations that have moved in to be able to do redistribution of drugs in our state,” Lankford says. “And it’s been a terrible consequence for our state.”
Doesn’t that bolster the argument for federal regulation? Or for the DEA to even be moving on that stuff?
“So Mexico has legalized drugs — how has that worked out for them? You know, it doesn’t…” Lankford contends. “Marijuana doesn’t make our families stronger, it doesn’t make our workplaces more efficient, it doesn’t make our streets safer. So to say that the solution for the election for Biden is to get more people to smoke marijuana, I find very bizarre.”
Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. James Lankford (R-OK), slightly edited for clarity.
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TRANSCRIPT: Sen. James Lankford
SCENE: Sen. Lankford’s walking through the basement of the Capitol when Ask a Pol starts interviewing him. They then hop an elevator together.
Matt Laslo: “…DEA recent move on marijuana. Congress…?”
James Lankford: “Terrible idea. It’s amazing to me the number of stories I’ve already read that this is Biden’s plan to be able to win the election is to get more people to smoke marijuana. I was like, okay, well, that’s quite a plan, ‘I can only win the election when more people smoke marijuana.’”
ML: “You going to two or one?”
JL: “I’m actually going to one. I got to check in with somebody here, then I’m heading up to two.”
ML: “Why I’m not a staffer.”
JL: “I think it’s a bad idea, and I think it sends all the wrong message about the drug use in our country.”
ML: “Cause you guys in Oklahoma — you read that ProPublica report?”
JL: “Oh yeah.”
ML: “Like the Chinese mafia or whatever? That’s insane.”
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JL: “Oh yeah. We have all kinds of outside criminal organizations that have moved in to be able to do redistribution of drugs in our state, and it’s been a terrible consequence for our state.”
ML: “Doesn’t that bolster the argument for federal regulation? Or for the DEA to even be moving on that stuff?”
JL: “So Mexico has legalized drugs — how has that worked out for them? You know, it doesn’t. This, Colorado, when they first legalized, they said, ‘We’re gonna tax it. We’re gonna control it’, and actually what it is, it created greater criminal activity on it.”
ML: “Yeah?”
JL: “Marijuana doesn’t make our families stronger, it doesn’t make our workplaces more efficient, it doesn’t make our streets safer. So to say that the solution for the election for Biden is to get more people to smoke marijuana, I find very bizarre.”
ML: “Yeah? Preciate ya. Have a good one, sir.”
Matt Laslo’s a veteran congressional correspondent, new media prof. & founder of Ask a Pol — a new, people-powered press corps.
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Sen. Lankford: “Biden’s plan to be able to win the election is to get more people to smoke marijuana”