Rep. John Fleming, R-La., brought his crusade against reforming marijuana laws to the Family Research Council’s “Washington Watch” yesterday, telling FRC President Tony Perkins that people who use pot will likely end up as meth addicts and become dependent on government assistance.

“Marijuana is a gateway drug, we have proven that scientifically,” Fleming said. “To think that today’s meth user was not yesterday’s marijuana user is actually just a flight of fantasy.”

He then warned that the government will begin arresting cigarette smokers while ignoring marijuana use: “Pretty soon you’ll see someone stopped on the street corner who is smoking and the policeman says, ‘I’m going to have to fine you or arrest you for smoking a cigarette,’ and they go, ‘no that’s marijuana,’ ‘oh that’s ok, it’s just marijuana.’ That’s really the direction we’re heading in.”

Fleming also disputed libertarian arguments in favor of reforming drug laws, arguing that liberalizing drug laws will make Americans less free and more reliant on government because people will be “disabled” as a result of marijuana use.

“They say, ‘you should be free to do whatever you want,’ well that’s fine but when society has to pick up the pieces and take care of you and your health and your family and support you through a very, very thick safety net system because you are now addicted or you have poor health and you can’t support yourself, then all you’re going to do is see a system, a society, if you will, that becomes more and more disabled and more and more supported by the government,” Fleming said. “How can you make a libertarian argument for that? But that is the future if we allow people to go irresponsibly into the future legalizing such dangerous substances, which inevitably are going to make their way into the homes and, when they do, children are going to be using them as well.”