Self proclaimed historian and Republican Tea Party (GOTP) presidential wannabe Newton Leroy Gingrich, said during a town hall-style appearance in Concord, that if elected (which is an ever expanding really big IF) he had no interest in exploring drug decriminalization, arguing such efforts haven’t worked in Europe, and of course as a conservative he’d base success rates of things off of Europe – which to conservatives has never succeeded in anything.

According to the Huffington Post, when a member of an audience later in the day argued the founding fathers had been far more lenient about marijuana than the current political class, Newton responded, “I think Jefferson or George Washington would have rather strongly discouraged you from growing marijuana and their techniques with dealing with it would have been rather more violent than our current government.” A comment which has no (as in zero) basis of fact to back it up, other than Newton being a conservative, and all conservative are born with an inherent understanding of what the Founding Fathers thought or would’ve thought on any subject from drug laws to potty training.

Of course the fact many of the Founding Fathers grew hemp (George Washington especially and Thomas Jefferson also included) was lost on Professor Gingrich, which today would’ve landed the grower in jail. Yeah, it’s easy to see how the Founding Fathers would’ve been harder than today’s authorities.  This is once again nothing but right-wing FOX style hyper-bole based on utter and complete nonsense. As a presidential candidate Newt’s a joke, and as a historian he’s an ignoramus.