Former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg spoke out on Sunday to call for the decriminalization of all drugs, even meth and heroin.
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate made this comment during an interview with Fox News host Chris Wallace.
“Mayor, you not only want to decriminalize marijuana, you want to decriminalize all drug possession. You say that the better answer is treatment, not incarceration,” Wallace said to him.
“That’s right,” Buttigieg replied.
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“But isn’t the fact that it’s illegal to have, to possess, meth and heroin, doesn’t the fact that it’s illegal act as a deterrent to actually trying it in the first place?” Wallace continued.
Buttigieg tried to evade the question by saying he would focus on penalizing distribution, but Wallace was not having any of it.
“But you would decriminalize it, so it wouldn’t be illegal,” he said, interrupting the candidate.
“Possession should not be dealt with through incarceration,” Buttigieg said.
“But you would say that possession of heroin is not illegal?” the Fox News host asked.
“Is not going to be dealt with through incarceration,” Buttigieg claimed.
A clearly shocked Wallace exclaimed, “But your website says ‘decriminalize’; it would not be illegal.”
“Yes, or it could be a misdemeanor,” Buttigieg responded.”The point is not the legal niceties. The point is that we have learned through 40 years of a failed war on drugs that criminalizing addiction doesn’t work. Not only that, the incarceration does more harm than the offense that it’s intended to deal with.”
This is totally bonkers.
Pete Buttigieg: decriminalize all drugs, including heroin and methpic.twitter.com/f2NiFOCmy7
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) February 9, 2020
This comes two months after Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd slammed Buttigieg for calling for drug decriminalization, according to The Blaze.
“He is guaranteeing more drug addicts, he’s guaranteeing more crime, and he’s guaranteeing less help because we don’t have enough services for those who are addicted to crimes now and he’s going to create more addiction,” Judd said.
Compared to candidates like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Buttigieg seems like a more rational option in the Democratic presidential race. This is a good reminder that Buttigieg is not as moderate as he seems, and is a radical leftist just like his fellow candidates.
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