(ThyBlackMan.com) Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who may be seeking to run on the Libertarian ticket, appeared on MSNBC where he reminded viewers over the weekend that in 1996 Newt Gingrich introduced the “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act.” The reported front-runner for the GOP presidential nomination, Newt Gingrich, wanted to institute the death penalty for people caught crossing the border with two ounces or more of a controlled substances. Beside the fact that Newt Gingrich stands accused of serial hypocrisy by Rep. Ron Paul when it comes to core conservative principles, it shows the hypocrisy of those who claim they are for limited government and scaling back the power of federal government regulations when they support politicians like him. It also shows Gingrich’s lack of understanding of the issue.
If Newt Gingrich had his way, not only would we see piles of bodies from the victims of Mexican drug cartels, we would see piles of bodies created by Newt Gingrich who once said that, “The first time we execute 27 or 30 or 35 
people at one time, and they go around Colombia and France and Thailand and Mexico, and they say, ‘Hi, would you like to carry some drugs into the U.S.?’ the price of carrying drugs will have gone up dramatically.” Since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States by the Supreme Court, over 1,264 people have been executed by yet death penalty eligible offenses still occur everyday.
The War on Drugs in its implementation has had a disproportional impact on people of color. Although blacks make up a small percentage of drug users, they represent a disproportionate number of arrests, prosecutions and incarcerations. Since Newt Gingrich has already indicated that he holds the racist view that black youth have no concept of working for pay except when it comes to being involved in illegal activities, should we assume that blacks youth would be the main targets of his stepped up enforcement of draconian drug policies. What would Newt Gingrich policies be toward Wall Street banks that have been implicated in laundering drug money? Would he call for the execution of bank executives or employees?
Like Obama, Newt Gingrich does not respect state’s rights or at least is hypocritical in applying the principle calling California’s medical marijuana law “a joke”. State’s rights are something often touted by conservatives but like Gingrich; many are hypocritical when it comes to drug laws and the constitution in general. Newt Gingrich is on record expressing support for draconian measures to impose his hypocritical sense of morality on others. Being an admitted former marijuana users, Newt Gingrich excuses his use of the plant saying, “See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral. Now, it is illegal and immoral. The law didn’t change, only the morality… That’s why you get to go to jail and I don’t.” Support for marijuana legalization has increased to nearly 50% according to several recent polls.
Newt Gingrich has a total lack of understanding of the impact of drug policies. He likes to cite the level of violence in Mexico to support his rhetoric but in fact the violence in Mexico increased to the levels we see today after the Mexican government was grant a billion dollars to go after drug cartels by the Obama administration. Members of the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a coalition of former cops, judges and others involved in criminal justice say that the violence is caused by drug prohibition. For an example they say, you do not see bar owners involved in gun battles to secure turf to sell alcohol. When a new bar sets up shop across from another bar, the bar owner with the longest tenure does not go after his competition by doing a drive-by shooting.
In a GOP campaign season dominated by discussions on reducing the deficit and scaling back the federal government, Newt Gingrich has not been asked or explained how he would pay for stepped up enforcement or how he would accomplish his goals without increasing the power and size of the government. Newt Gingrich touts himself as a history professor but one would have to wonder how much time he spent studying the failed policy of Alcohol Prohibition.
Staff Writer; Scotty Reid
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