Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said in an interview with Des Moines, Iowa's KCCI Channel 8 that he doesn't see the difference between states flouting federal anti-pot laws and state employees like Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis refusing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
One reporter said that decriminalization of marijuana is an aspect of police reform that has been coming up in discussions again and again.
"Would that be something you'd be willing to consider?" she asked Huckabee.
"Well, I think we need to recognize that marijuana has never made anybody a better citizen," the former pastor replied. "Does it make you a better worker? Does it make you a better mom or dad? A better citizen? Does it make you a more attentive driver?"
"If there's a benefit to it, and there may be medically," he said, "if your doctor prescribes certain uses of it, then I'm open to that."
He said we should keep an eye on Colorado and see how the legalization of recreational marijuana works out there.
"I've been to Amsterdam a few times," he went on, "and I don't want us to look like Amsterdam."
"The federal issue of that," said the reporter, "is that they're violating federal law. And if you believe in the rule of law at all, you have to either change the law or enforce the laws that are on the books, right?"
"Let me ask you this," Huckabee said. "How come it's that liberals are okay with not keeping the federal law when it comes to the marijuana laws and it's okay for the states to ignore it, but if it comes to a county clerk in Kentucky who doesn't believe that she can abide by a federal court ruling -- not even a law -- then she goes to jail?"
"Do you see where conservatives sometimes their heads explode because they say, 'Boy, there's one set of rules for people on the left and a total different set of rules for people on the right?'" he asked.
Watch the video, embedded below: