Given his much-publicized distaste for Sacramento, it's good to see that Gavin Newsom is finding ways to keep himself busy.
On his Current TV chat show this week, our Lieutenant Governor took part in an enlightening conversation with cinematic auteur Oliver Stone about where we might find the stankiest buds on the face of God's green earth.
SPOILER ALERT: The answer is California.
"We have the best weed in the world; I'm telling you from my own experience of 40 years," said Stone, who stopped by the show to promote his new film "Savages." "Vietnamese weed, Thai weed, Jamaican weed, Sudanese weed, it's all great stuff. But, because Americans are so technically minded (like mad chemists), they've taken Afghan seeds from the Afghan War, which is the hypothesis of the movie, and rededicated themselves and made the finest seeds in the world, the finest grass you can smoke."
Stop the presses! The man who made "The Doors" and posed on the cover of this month's High Times magazine smoking a joint is fond of drugs. It's shocking, we know.
Stone went on to slam the federal government's anti-drug policy. "This drug war is insane," said the Academy Award-winning director. "I know this first-hand because I was one of its first victims." "Savages," based on the best selling novel by author Don Winslow, is the story of a pair of drug-dealing buddies who get tangled up in a violent dispute with a Mexican drug cartel.
"I couldn’t agree more," replied Newsom. "I've been very aggressive and I'm proud to be aggressive as a sitting politician, not an ex-politician."
While Newsom has been a strong supporter of medical marijuana, decrying the recent federal crackdown on local Bay Area pot clubs, he's stopped short of supporting full-scale legalization.
"This is a hard one for me... but I'm just not there yet," Newsom told The Appeal. "I'll never cede my strong support [for medical cannabis]," but concerns over exactly how full-on legalization would be implemented -- from taxation to dispensation to "the message it sends" -- soured Prop 19 [2010's unsuccessful pot legalization ballot measure] in Newsom's eyes. "I'm frustrated with myself on this one, to be truthful," Newsom added. "But I'm just not there yet. I hope to be there someday, though."
"Savages" arrives in theaters July 6.