{"id":1949,"date":"2010-06-20T03:19:43","date_gmt":"2010-06-20T10:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=1949"},"modified":"2010-06-20T03:21:13","modified_gmt":"2010-06-20T10:21:13","slug":"gop-for-small-businesses-before-they-were-against-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/20\/gop-for-small-businesses-before-they-were-against-them\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP: For Small Businesses Before They were Against Them"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #0000ff;\">The Republican Party is always touting themselves as the party of small entrepreneurs.\u00a0 But they abandon that stance, whenever they want control to deprive people of benefits.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20Christie.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"margin: 2px 0px 5px 10px; display: inline; border-width: 0px;\" title=\"20Christie\" src=\"https:\/\/www.7thstep.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/20Christie_thumb.jpg\" border=\"0\" alt=\"20Christie\" width=\"339\" height=\"245\" align=\"right\" \/><\/a> I thought Republicans were for the small businessmen and against more government regulation? (Not to mention that most business experts recommend concentrating on &#8220;core competencies.&#8221; Think growing marijuana is Rutgers&#8217; area of expertise?)<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\">If the GOP ever acted consistently with their stated principles, I think I&#8217;d drop dead from the shock. But Gov. Christie has already proved <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nj.com\/news\/index.ssf\/2010\/06\/christie_administration_wants_1.html\" target=\"_blank\">he has no such scruples<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\">TRENTON \u2014 Gov. Chris Christie\u2019s administration said Rutgers University\u2019s agricultural center <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">should grow the pot and hospitals should dispense it under the state\u2019s medical marijuana program<\/span>, according to three people briefed on the proposal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\">If legislators agree with the administration and amend a law that passed in January, New Jersey would be the first among the 14 medical marijuana states to run a centralized production and distribution system. The proposed changes represent <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">an even more restrictive program \u2014 beyond one that was already the most conservative in the country \u2014 and eliminate the option of entrepreneurial growers and dispensaries getting some of the state\u2019s marijuana business.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\">Letting the program operate through one grower and hospitals would minimize some of <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Christie\u2019s concern about the program posing a security and safety threat<\/span>, according to the sources, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the details.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt; font-weight: bold;\">Critics have said the governor is needlessly dragging his feet in a state that has at least 5,000 citizens who need the drug to alleviate pain and suffering.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\">Roseanne Scotti, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance of New Jersey, said she had heard &#8220;rumors&#8221; about the state wanting to involve Rutgers and hospitals. She said she wished the administration would stick to the bill that took years to pass.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\">&#8220;Why go back to drawing board, especially when seriously ill people are waiting?&#8221; she asked. Scotti also said the changes would limit economic growth from the medical marijuana industry.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in 0in 0in 0.375in; font-family: &amp;quot;Lucida Grande&amp;quot;; font-size: 11pt;\">&#8220;A lot of very responsible and respectable people have begun to step forward,&#8221; she said. <span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">&#8220;I thought the Christie administration is supposedly business-friendly.&#8221;<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 0in; font-family: calibri; font-size: 11pt;\">\u2026 [<span style=\"font-style: italic;\">emphasis original<\/span>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Inserted from &lt;<a href=\"http:\/\/crooksandliars.com\/susie-madrak\/gov-christie-wants-edge-out-small-bus\" target=\"_blank\">Crooks and Liars<\/a>&gt;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Personally, I haven\u2019t smoked weed in over thirty years, and I haven\u2019t lived in NJ in over forty years, so this has no effect on me whatsoever.\u00a0 However, I can personally attest that Rutgers University Agricultural Center used to produce some excellent quality pot.\u00a0 The New Jersey Legislature passed this bill.\u00a0 The Obama DOJ reversed the GOP Regime policy to prosecute legitimate state licensed medical marijuana growers.\u00a0 The only reason for this is that the Republican party opposes it.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">While I do not support or encourage marijuana use, I believe that even its recreational use should be decriminalized.\u00a0 Originally it was outlawed only because an earlier generation of Republicans wanted an excuse to harass Latinos.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Republican Party is always touting themselves as the party of small entrepreneurs.\u00a0 But they abandon that stance, whenever they want control to deprive people of benefits. I thought Republicans were for the small businessmen and against more government regulation? (Not to mention that most business experts recommend concentrating on &#8220;core competencies.&#8221; Think growing marijuana <a href='https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2010\/06\/20\/gop-for-small-businesses-before-they-were-against-them\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}