In case you have been living under a rock since yesterday, State Representative Steve Haugaard has come under fire for comments he was making in a floor debate yesterday where he refers to a child of a client – a woman that had addiction issues – as a “wrung out whore.”
Predictably, this has met with a firestorm of negative reaction, including from Governor Noem who is suggesting he be censured for his comments.
In case you wanted to hear for yourselves, with a little context..
I knew pot led to prostitution. Knew it! Thanks for confirming my suspicion Governor Haugaard.
well, that is what meth addiction does to people
there is no point in pretending it doesn’t.
I agree, he should seek treatment.
Haha
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the State Capitol was supposed to be a place of decorum and civility. I had no idea it had become the back room of Clancy’s Pool Hall.
Is it any different than having the junior congresswomen at the US capital heckle the president during the state of the union speech? Maybe we need to stop electing trashy people just because they put an (R) next to their name.
Honestly, I don’t think the Republicans or Democrats have any high moral ground to stand on. Just look at the antics of “The Squad” in DC, some of which can be downright Antisemitic. And how about that fine gentleman who withdrew from the Congressional race because he couldn’t engage his brain before he tweeted?
Irregardless of party, if you act like a fool, you will be treated like one. It’s a lesson I tell my students on a daily basis. Apparently both political parties could learn that lesson, too.
Great points, but please don’t teach your students “irredgardless” 😉
Matt, throughout history many people have labeled any criticism of Israel as antisemitic, mainly to deflect those criticisms. What do you believe “the squad” has done that is antisemitic?
Bad choice of words but Representative Haugaard’s description of Marijuana users is spot on. Marijuana is a gateway drug. There is a huge amount of denial within the pot/drug culture from users prtecting access to their drug and it’s use and those who profit from addiction. It is very common for MJ users to be poly drug users and not uncommon for them to graduate to other drugs. A major issue is that this culture of drug use does not even consider Marijuana a drug which is problematic from the get go making it much more difficult for those to realize they have a substance abuse problem and seek treatment.
Look out it’s Reefer Madness Miranda coming in hot! How many people used alcohol before cannabis? How many meth users used caffeine first? The gateway argument is bunk.
Throwing out whataboutisms is deflection and one of the classic signs of the unhealthy behavior associated with substance abuse/addiction. Thank you for proving my point my friend!
That wasn’t whataboutism. That was raising counterexamples that question the validity of the “gateway drug” concept. They didn’t prove your point at all.
A counterexample is not “whataboutism.” He’s attacking the underlying premise that marijuana is a gateway drug, because researchers were impacted for a long time by the “after, therefore because” of fallacy that Intro to Philosophy students learn about year 1. Numerous peer reviewed studies and the NIH have shown these complaints to be bunk. I won’t repost what Caleb did, but here is another study conducted last year that undermines the claims you are making:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11292-021-09464-z
The 9:54am and 10:39am posts are correct. The others are not.
Except you were just given a link that disproves that. Try listening to the “facts, data and science” rather than your own propaganda.
“However, the majority of people who use marijuana do not go on to use other, “harder” substances. Also, cross-sensitization is not unique to marijuana. Alcohol and nicotine also prime the brain for a heightened response to other drugs51 and are, like marijuana, also typically used before a person progresses to other, more harmful substances.”
Weird.
You’re a bit behind the times. Please read the four paragraphs here: https://nida.nih.gov/publications/research-reports/marijuana/marijuana-gateway-drug
Where does it start? What behaviors or substances lead to marijuana use?
Pretty foolish.
It’s right up there with running someone over with a car, not resigning and then pretending to run for reelection. Oh yeah and firing someone for not giving your daughter a job and paying out $200k in hush money.
The double standard for who to condemn and who to look the other way for is repulsive.
Maybe he should resign. Maybe a lot of people should.
I listened to the entire debate so I can get the context the comments were made. Thank you Pat for posting the audio so we can hear it all.
Wow!
To hear Steve Haugaard use such language at all, is a bit of a shocker. For a Representative and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, to use it during a house floor speech makes it that much more disturbing.
I believe he gave the wrong speech for the bill being considered.
His point that addiction knows no boundaries like gender, race, age or anything else is well taken. The victims of addiction will sell anything and everything for that next hit, including their bodies. The colorful language used to describe how addiction had destroyed this young person’s life may have seemed harsh, however they are very accurate. What isn’t mentioned is, did this person get any help, or more importantly did they want any help?
“The fact is, I’ve never met someone who got smarter from smoking pot,” the governor said.
“It’s not good for our kids. And it’s not going to improve our communities”.
Well known among those who have to clean up messes created by potheads. Representative Haugaard, governor Noem and majority of South Dakotans can agree on this.
The “majority of South Dakotan’s” voted in favor of devil’s lettuce. Get your facts straight.
The bill being debated wasn’t about the merits of Marijuana, it was to fix the oversight that only doctors were allowed to prescribe it whereas a Physician Assistant or Nurse Practitioner can prescribe nearly all other drugs. My town has no doctor just a PA, who prescribes my patented (meth)amphetamine / Adderall.. If a PA can prescribe that they can handle Marijuana.
It is to this point that the representative wasn’t even on topic, he was just enjoying hearing himself speak.