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residential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R- FL) came out strongly against the legalization of recreational marijuana at a campaign rally in South Carolina Thursday, and expressed skepticism about the medical usefulness of the plant when asked what he would do about drug use in the United States.

“And I say, well, because this country already pays a terrible price for the abuse of alcohol,” Mr. Rubio said at a campaign event in South Carolina. “We’re not going to outlaw alcohol. We’re not going to ban it. It’s part of our culture. It’s ingrained in our society — that’s not a realistic proposal.

“But no one can tell me that alcohol’s had a positive impact on society,” he said. “It destroys marriages and lives, it kills people … and now you want to add another intoxicant and make it legal?”

What about medical marijuana?

“There’s no positive impact to using marijuana,” Rubio said. “Now, if there’s a medicinal use — if you can go to the FDA and prove that it helps with medicine, that’s fine. Then turn it into medicine.”

Not exactly high praise of a substance that is backed up with mountains of scientific research and miles of anecdotal evidence that all point to the medicinal value of marijuana for a wide variety of ailments and diseases. But then again, science has never been one of Rubio’s strongest talking points.