JACKSON, MI - Marijuana, Michigan State University and the state of the union were among the topics discussed at the 90-minute town hall for Republican gubernatorial candidates Wednesday.

One of a handful of town halls scheduled across Michigan, the Jan. 31 event was hosted at the Jackson Symphony Orchestra's Weatherwax Hall. Candidates attending and speaking were Lt. Gov. Brian Calley; State Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton; Earl Lackie and Evan Space.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette was invited but did not attend. Questions came from the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce and the audience and were moderated by JTV's Bart Hawley.

Besides noting Jackson as the birthplace of the Republican Party, neither the city nor the county were mentioned by the candidates in their responses. In the audience were State Sen. Mike Shirkey, R-Clark Lake, and Jackson City Councilmen Craig Pappin and Jeromy Alexander.

Here's a summary of the candidates answers to select questions from Wednesday night.

If recreational marijuana passes in Michigan, where should the additional tax money go?

Calley:

"If there are ramifications to this policy, then the tax revenue should deal with those ramifications."

"When it comes to legalization overall of marijuana, while I do support medical marijuana, I don't support overall recreational legalization. If it does pass, I will of course abide by and respect the will of the voters. At that point, I think it needs to be handled in the way that we do other types of controlled substances. We have frameworks in place for alcohol, frameworks in place for tobacco and now there's frameworks in place for medical marijuana."

Colbeck:

"I think all that money's going to have to go to law enforcement, because all these transactions are going to be cash transactions because this is still outlawed at the federal level, which means none of these transactions can go through our current banking system."

"(Business interests) are looking at a billion dollar industry, and they're not looking at some of the ramifications from a societal perspective as what they're seeing out in Colorado. We've got good friends out there and the impacts of this are not good. You're going to need every penny to go off and put toward law enforcement because of what's going to happen to our culture. They're selling our next generation down the river, with this."

"We're all concerned about opioid problems. Well this is going to put that on steroids with what happens, because this is a gateway drug and is going to make it even worse."

Lackey:

"Out in Colorado, it's an $8 billion industry. You want to know where the money's going to come from to fix the roads? If we legalize it in the state, we're talking about billions of dollars."

"I think we need to do it because the money aspects it could bring into this state are just astronomical."

Space:

"We have 27 states in the United States that have it medically. With that, we also have 35 percent of it that will go toward our roads and another 35 percent of that tax will go toward the education system for all of our children and all of our future. The other 30 percent of that will go directly into the community of where it came from. This is not an issue about whether it's a harsh drug or not. It's not a gateway drug to opioids. It's actually something that will help the industry and help our economic growth in the state of Michigan."

What's your opinion of the state of the union address, how strongly do you support the Republican Party platform and will you closely follow it?

Space:

"As the big guy has now said, our nation has grown stronger, we have developed many new jobs, we're a safer nation and he's not willing to back down from a fight and potential war that is coming up. I think we need to stand behind him to make sure he will be led by a group of people that are willing to follow his necessary personal agendas that he sets forth."

"I believe that President Trump will do a good job in being able to lead our nation into the future."

Calley:

"I thought he gave a great speech last night. And it highlighted some of the priorities that match the way we've approached things, here. We came right in and did major tax reform and it made a big difference in moving forward."

"I was very, very pleased to see him describe the opioid epidemic as an emergency. To have the president of the United States recognize this as a national emergency is so, so important. And to highlight Detroit and the comeback that Detroit has made. Ten years ago, could you have ever imagined a president giving Detroit in the state of the union address as an example of something good? Yet, that's exactly what's happened."

Colbeck:

"I think President Trump knocked it out of the park, (Tuesday) night. I think it gave a big boost for a lot of folks that were waiting for a president to talk like that to the American people."

"(The speech) highlighted the divide and why this gubernatorial race is so important right now. Because we've got people on the other side of the fence right now that don't share the same values as the folks in the Republican Party and frankly, what we used to call being an American."

Lackie:

"I agree with Pat, I think he knocked it out of the park. And I'm proud to say, President Trump is my president. It was shameful to watch the Democrats (Tuesday) night, doing what they were doing. Even on some of the topics we should be together."

"I don't see him letting up at all, I really don't. And I can see where it's going to help us, here. As a former successful small businessman myself, seeing that business tax go down to 21 percent for big business, that's going to do nothing but help everybody."

Is Michigan State University handling its response to the Larry Nassar case appropriately?

Colbeck:

"Obviously they didn't handle it appropriate for years, because this was hidden from the public venue. I'm a big believer in making sure we're transparent as to what's going on. I still want to find out who knew what, when, frankly, in regards to some of the details."

Lackie:

"The Nassar case is a tragedy all on its own. More and more women are still coming forward. As far as (former) Governor Engler taking over right now, it's just for an interim, I think it's OK. Let him jump in and do the job. With everything that's going on and all the investigations that need to be done there, we've got to have somebody at the helm."

Space:

"I think Mr. Engler would be a good fit for being in that position. We need to be able to hold the university accountable to make sure that they know all of the actions that are going on."

"(Nassar) needs to go away and he needs to go away for a long time."

"We need to make this state strong and stand behind the university and make sure that they do a full investigation."

Calley:

"I have never been so embarrassed to be a Spartan. The way that this whole thing was handled and is still being handled right now is atrocious. And we should all be mad as hell about it."

"We haven't seen any actual changes. We still see a legal direction that is revictimizing these women today. Michigan State University - their lawyers and their insurance companies - are in the courtroom trying to use legal technicalities to dismiss their legal claims. It's not right."

"What I wanted to see (Wednesday) morning, when they appointed a new president, (was) for them to take that opportunity to instruct the lawyers to drop the lawsuits (and) create a victims' claims fund with hundreds of millions of dollars. Because at the end of the day, that's what it's going to be."

"We have to keep the pressure on them to start putting the survivors first. And until that happens, (there's) not going to be one single good word I'm going to say about Michigan State University."