Kinky Friedman (pictured at left) is running for the Democratic nomination to be the candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner on the November ballot. And while most candidates of either party are to afraid to take a stand on any controversial issues, Kinky is not.Kinky is running his campaign on three major issues -- solving the state's water problems, legalizing the growth of hemp by Texas farmers, and legalizing the possession of marijuana by adults. Here is what Kinky has to say to the voters of Texas:
Greetings, fellow Texans!
I’m running for Agriculture Commissioner of Texas in the March 4th Democratic Primary in an effort to bring courage, imagination, and common sense back to politics. I’m running as an old-time Harry Truman blue dog Democrat. I’m running to try to give young people in Texas someone in politics they can look up to. Last, but certainly not least, I’m running to end the prohibition on pot and hemp in the great state of Texas.
There would be no culture without agriculture. It is the green thread that runs through all our lives. As we have seen in Colorado and Washington State, legalizing, taxing, and cultivating pot can be the economic engine to fund education, not just talk about it, so perhaps we would no longer rank 50th in the country in high school graduation rates. Legalizing pot will lower property taxes as well as reducing other state and local taxes. It will also effectively spay and neuter the Mexican drug cartels; the people of Texas will become the new cartel. I have yet to meet a law enforcement officer in Texas who does not believe we are losing the war on drugs.
In 2010, according to the Dallas Observer, more than 74,000 non-violent pot arrests occurred in Texas, resulting in the ruin of many young lives at the cost to the taxpayer of 250 million dollars. It should also be noted that seven times as many African-Americans and Hispanics have been incarcerated as whites.
Add to this that Texas has arguably the biggest and the best cancer hospital in the world, M.D. Anderson in Houston, and no medical marijuana.
As far as hemp goes, it’s really a no-brainer. Cotton requires twice as much water as hemp, yet hemp produces two and a half times the fiber. This is ever more important in these times of deep drought and a major factor in considering our options for water conservation. Hemp returns nutrients to the soil; cotton does not. Hemp requires no pesticides; twenty-five percent of all the pesticides in the world go into cotton. Hemp even reduces CO2 in the atmosphere. If you were a farmer, which would you rather grow?
Prohibition simply doesn’t work. Lifting the prohibition on pot is not about long-haired hippies smoking dope; it’s about the economy, the environment and water conservation, education, the border, health care, criminal justice (and injustice!). It’s about the future of this great state.
I doubt if any other candidate for statewide office will champion (or even mention) these ideas. But someone needs to bring them forth. That’s another reason I’m running. It’s a dirty job, and I get to do it.
It would be a good thing for all of us to ask ourselves two questions whenever we encounter a new idea. The first question should be, “Is it good for Texas?” The second question should be, “Do we want to be leaders, or do we want to be seceders?”
Yours in Texas,
Kinky Friedman
