Assemblyman Steve Katz, R-Yorktown, voted against the legalization of medical marijuana last year in the state Assembly.
He was ticketed yesterday for allegedly having a bag of weed in his car after police “noted the odor of marihuana.”
Katz, a veterinarian, voted against the legalization of medical marijuana during a vote on June 13. It passed 91-52, with most Republicans voting against it.
After Gannett’s Albany Bureau broke the story today, here’s the news release that State Police put out today.
At approximately 10:00 AM on March 14, 2013, State Police arrested STEPHEN M. KATZ, age 59, of Mohegan Lake, NY for the violation of Unlawful Possession of Marihuana following a traffic stop on the New York State Thruway in the Town of Coeymans. While northbound on I-87, Mr. Katz was stopped for traveling at 80 miles per hour in a posted 65 miles per hour speed zone. After noting the odor of marihuana, a New York State Trooper found Katz in possession of a small bag of marihuana. MR. KATZ was released on an appearance ticket to appear in the Town of Coeymans Court on March 28th.
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Trying to control each and every thing that 350 million people do with their bodies is not small government!
Pragmatic libertarians (minimal-statists) and true conservatives agree that many, if not most, of society’s problems are caused by government usurping choices that could better be made by individuals themselves, and that government is just about the worst way of doing almost anything. Where libertarianism normally parts company with “fake” conservatism is over moral issues. A true conservative would have no problem with agreeing that what people do with their own bodies, and especially in the privacy of their own home, should be supremely their business and that anything else would entail ignoring the basic tenet of limited government.
If you support prohibition then you are NOT a conservative.
Conservative principles quite clearly are:
1) Limited, locally controlled government.
2) Individual liberty coupled with personal responsibility.
3) Free enterprise.
4) A strong national defense.
5) Fiscal responsibility.
Prohibition is actually an authoritarian war on our economy and Constitution.
It’s all about market and cost/benefit analysis. Whether any particular drug is good, bad, or otherwise is irrelevant. As long as there is demand for any mind altering substance there WILL be supply! The only affect prohibiting it has is to drive the price up while increasing the costs and profits – and where there is illegal profit to be made criminals and terrorists thrive.