Country singer and songwriter Kinky Friedman says he is running for Texas Agricultural Commissioner because he wants to lift the state's prohibition on marijuana and hemp and he believes state residents do as well.
"Polls have agreed lately with me that we're ready for it. Hemp requires half the water that cotton requires, our number one cash crop currently, and it requires zero pesticides. It puts nutrients into the soil and it just makes sense. It's the kind of thing we ought to be doing," he told Newsmax TV's John Bachman and J.D. Hayworth on "America's Forum" Thursday.
"China is currently the largest hemp producer, and do you guys know who their number one customer is? It's Willie Nelson. No, it's us of course," he added.
Friedman, who is also a humorist and a novelist, was one of two independent candidates in the 2006 gubernatorial election in Texas. He placed fourth in the six-person race, receiving 12.6 percent of the vote.
He rejected the notion that he's running a one issue campaign. "It's a huge issue, and an example of it would be all the areas that the green thread of agriculture runs through. We're currently ranked forty-ninth in education, thank God for Alabama, and the green thread of agriculture could actually fund education. Whereas all the other candidates are talking about education, none of them are talking about pot or hemp," he said.
"The whole country is talking about it, in fact, most of the world, but these candidates for office in Texas are not mentioning it. It would effectively castrate the Mexican drug cartels that estimated as much as 60 percent of the revenues would be lost to them and would go to the new cartel, the people of Texas. "
Friedman pointed to the fact that in 2010, 74,000 people were arrested for non-violent drug possession and it cost taxpayers $250 million to prosecute them.
"Then when they were incarcerated, we discovered that we could have put all of these people, 74,000, through Harvard cheaper than it costs us to incarcerate them here in Texas and screw up their young lives," he said.
Friedman also noted that Texas could bring in a large amount of tax revenue by legalizing pot. "We know that between the tax revenue which we can see in Colorado, which by the way is a little bitty pissant state. I mean you have to multiply that…Texas would just be enormous. Something more important is not just the fact that property taxes and state and local taxes will go down, as they're starting to do in Colorado, and that the revenue would be a huge engine, much bigger than the lottery or something like that," he argued.
"Also, I don't want to insult Florida, Arizona, California or any of the states, but the children of the world look to Texas. Texas has this mythology about it and if Texas legalizes then it's going to end the war on drugs, which is a horrible abysmal failure and now brings me to law enforcement."
Friedman continued, "Law enforcement is down with this 100 percent. I've interviewed every redneck deputy sheriff I can find, and I have yet to meet one that says he's against legalizing. They're all for it and the reason they give is that every night they get a call that some guy has a few drinks and beats up his wife and they got to deal with it. They say they've never had a case of a guy smoking a few joints and beating up his wife because he forgets to beat up his wife, you see, he beats up a bag of Doritos or something like that. "
Friedman, whose first band after graduating from the University of Texas at Austin — where he earned the nickname Kinky because of his curly hair — was called "Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys," says there is also a strong contingent of libertarian voters in the state who could help get him elected.
"The libertarians have always got it right. I mean, I'm a Democrat, I'm an old-time Harry Truman Blue Dog Democrat, and I think the libertarians had a lot in common with someone like Barbara Jordan," he said, referring to the civil rights activist who was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction.
"I know it sounds strange, but it's true. The Constitution was her bible, and it's theirs as well, and the tea party, and when you put that whole group together, I really believe you're going to have people voting Republican, Republican, Republican, Republican, Kinky, Republican, Republican. That's what's going to win it for us. "
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