Outgoing California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) defended his decision to reduce legal liability for personal marijuana use in the Golden State in a late-night TV appearance Monday. "No one cares if you smoke a joint or not," he told host Jay Leno on NBC's Tonight Show.
Schwarzenegger discussed his signing of a new California law that lowered the penalty for possession of an ounce or less of marijuana from a misdemeanor to an infraction. He described the new penalty as "kind of like a speeding ticket."
Schwarzenegger can personally attest to the negligible effects of marijuana use -- at least politically. A YouTube video of Schwarzenegger smoking a joint years ago hasn't hurt his public career. Nor have other politicians found youthful substance abuse to be a disqualifier for higher office in recent years: President Obama's admission that he used marijuana and cocaine as a teen never became a campaign issue in 2008, and President George W. Bush's past cocaine use and drinking problems fizzled as an issue in 2000.
While California voters narrowly rejected Proposition 19, or the "reeferendum," which would have allowed local governments to legalize and regulate marijuana, Schwarzenegger speculated it lost because it was badly worded, not because voters oppose legalizing pot. "Propositions don’t die because the idea is bad," he said. "It died because it was written wrong."
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