Perry seems to have been reading his Buckley.

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“You don’t want to ruin a kid’s life for having a joint,” said Texas Governor Rick Perry during a Tuesday taping of “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

The governor touted decriminalization as a way to reduce the size of government. “We’ve been able to shut down a prison in the state of Texas — that’s conservative, man!” Perry said to loud applause, the Christian Post reports.

Perry is on to something. William F. Buckley, Jr. was an early and passionate advocate of drug legalization. A majority of CPAC 2014 attendees said they supported the legalization of marijuana.

In fact, Eric Holder’s recent crackdown on mandatory minimum sentencing seems ultimately to have been a response to Senator Rand Paul’s criticism of this policy.

While Rick Perry may be in the wrong on other issues, he should be praised for helping conservatives to return to their small government roots on this one.



