Jeb Bush admits '40 years ago I smoked marijuana'

At the Republican debate, Carly Fiorina said she ‘buried a child to drug addiction’ as the GOP presidential candidates discussed cannabis use and states’ rights

Kentucky senator Rand Paul put more traditional conservatives on the defensive during the CNN GOP presidential candidates’ debate on Wednesday night, framing a fierce defence of cannabis use and states’ rights.

“There is at least one prominent example of someone who’s said they’ve smoked [weed] in high school,” Paul said. “I would like to see more rehabilitation and less incarceration.”

“But the bottom line is … we say we support the 10th amendment until we start talking about this.” He also said the war on drugs had led to “a racial outcome”.

After he spoke, there was an awkward moment of foot-shuffling between the candidates until Jeb Bush owned up. “40 years ago I smoked marijuana,” he admitted, but added “we have a serious epidemic of drugs that goes way beyond marijuana”. “Sorry mom,” he later tweeted.

Paul pressed Bush, saying that by campaigning against marijuana as governor of Florida, Bush had led to “poor kids … going to jail”. He said the former governor had been “hypocritical”.

Bush insisted he doesn’t oppose medical marijuana but instead opposed the particular ballot initiative at issue, and voted against it.

Christie, like Bush, also tried to soften his previous hard-line stance on cannabis, saying that New Jersey was the first state where first-time non-violent non-dealing drug offenders were sent to mandatory treatment rather than jail.

But Paul pressed Christie on his previous promise to enforce federal prohibition on recreational marijuana in Colorado and other states which had legalised it. “If they’re saying they’re going to enforce fed law over what state law says, they’re against the 10th amendment … crime was supposed to be left to the states.”

“I very much hope that I’m the only person on the stage who can say this,” Fiorina interjected. “My husband and I buried a child to drug addiction.”
She said she agreed with Paul on states’ rights, but warned that “the marijuana today is not the same as what Jeb smoked 40 years ago … drug addiction is an epidemic and it is taking too many of our young people.”