"The White House unfortunately is going in the wrong direction," Bill Maher opined on the latest Real Time. "What the fuck, Joe?"
He was referring to the decision to fire several staffers and suspend other for admitting to previous or current marijuana use.
"Well, you've really got to give it to the drug war," Maher went on. "It is bipartisan. It was 50 years ago when Nixon announced that drugs were 'Public Enemy No. 1' and told Elvis to get rid of them by taking them all."
Maher then veered into a condemnation of the drug war:
"So much of this rot in our society stems from our modern-day version of prohibition. The people fleeing at the border, that's the drug war. The record-shattering amount of incarceration this country does with all its implications for racial injustice, wasted lives and skewed elections because some felons can't work, that's the drug war.
"Other people get it: Mexico legalized weed this month [Ed. note: This has not happened yet, though the lower House voted in favor]. Canada did it two years ago. Why are we always the last at everything now?
"Portugal ran this experiment," he continued. "They decriminalized all drugs 10 years ago [Ed. note: It was 20 years ago] and they had less than 100 overdose deaths last year. We had 81,000. The war is over."
Maher also noted in his monologue that New York was close to legalizing marijuana, joking:
"New York State, where I spent so much of my time, is going to legalize pot finally. Gov. Cuomo says he will sign the bill as soon as he gets done searching his assistant for a pen."
Cuomo is under investigation for his treatment of female staffers.
Cue to the five-minute mark...
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• Smokes a Joint on 'Real Time'
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