Mark Souder: “It is awful when your parents get older and have different struggles and we need to look and we have found drugs to give…”

“It is awful when your parents get older and have different struggles and we need to look and we have found drugs to give them to try to address this question. That is not what this debate is about. The gentleman from California and I have been friends for many years. We grew up in the same conservative youth organization, Young Americans for Freedom. We had these same disagreements when we were in YAF a long time ago on legalization of marijuana. We had a very close vote in the national organization. It was an organization founded by William F. Buckley. Richard Brookhiser came up through that same organization. What we called, and I was a more traditionalist conservative, the libertarians believed at that time, and in many cases still do, as we heard from the most consistent libertarian in the House, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Paul), that drug laws are wrong and that States can nullify Federal laws. I do not agree with that. I believe there are times when the elected representatives of the American people can make national policy and that is what we are debating right now. Does the Federal Government have a right to make a law by elected citizens all across the United States that will be upheld because they believe it protects the citizens of the United States in the best way? Many States conceivably could pass different laws on civil rights to nullify some of the things we do here and other laws. We cannot operate that way.”