A former U.S. labor secretary who previously served as mayor of Boston as Massachusetts’s marijuana legalization law came into effect, spoke out against what he described as a “slippery slope” of cannabis reform during a C-SPAN interview this week.
Marty Walsh, who also discussed his own substance use disorder and recovery in the interview, said he’s “worried” about legalization efforts and gets “concerned about where we’re headed there.”
Asked how he felt about his state’s move to legalize, the former Biden cabinet member replied: “I didn’t love it. When I was mayor of Boston, I fought it. I get concerned. I think it’s a slippery slope.”
Walsh, who opposed the 2016 ballot initiative to legalize marijuana in his state and later voted against a proposed Democratic National Committee party plank to endorse cannabis legalization in 2020, noted that advocates at first seemed to want to decriminalize marijuana, then later pushed legalize it for medical uses.
“And now you have marijuana” legal for adults, he added. “And I’m just worried, you know. You have have some places in the country trying to legalize it and opioids. I get concerned about that. I just get concerned about where we’re headed there.”
Later in the interview, he claimed that “alcohol deaths are higher than, actually, opioid deaths at this point in our country,” and argued that manufacturers of dangerous or impairing substances should be liable for costs of therapy and recovery.
Hellbound and Down 