SALON

Tuesday, Jan 29, 2013 9:56 PM UTC

Tom Tancredo breaks pot-smoking promise

Pressured by his family, the Colorado Republican backs out of his vow to light up

By

Topics: The Fix, Tom Tancredo, marijuana, Marijuana Legalization, Colorado,

Tom Tancredo breaks pot-smoking promise(Credit: AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)
This article originally appeared on The Fix.


the fix Those who were waiting with bated breath for Tom Tancredo to light up will be disappointed. The former Republican congressman from Colorado, who promised to smoke weed—in public—if his state’s marijuana legalization bill passed, has reneged on his pact. The conservative Republican was an unlikely supporter of Colorado’s Amendment 64, which legalized weed for recreational use, but he says he never thought the bill would actually pass. “I thought it would take at least one more time around to do it,” Tancredo told ABC News last week. In the newly released trailer for his film, Grassroots—The Comeback of Cannabis, comedian Adam Hartle asks Tancredo if he would agree to smoke a joint if the bill passed. “When marijuana legalization passes and marijuana is legal, the next time I’m out in Colorado, we’re going to smoke a joint together,” Hartle proposes. “Deal,” Tancredo replies, and they shake on it. Although on Friday, Tancredo vowed to keep the promise, he has now reportedly backed out of the deal due to pressure from his wife, who is “pissed” and his grandchildren who he says are “very upset with grandpa.” “Will have to welch. Political heat is one thing. Am use to that,” Tancredo wrote in an email. “Heat from my family is quite another.”

More Ben Feuerherd.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 7 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

Salon is proud to feature content from The Fix, the world's leading website on addiction and recovery. The site features a daily mix of breaking news, leading columnists, investigative reports, celebrity interviews, features on health, science and sober living, independent rehab reviews and hundreds of treatment resources.

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations