LOS ANGELES Nov 2, 2007 (AP)
Bob Barker famously closed each episode of "The Price Is Right" with a pitch to spay and neuter pets. His successor is taking a stand on a more controversial subject: marijuana. Drew Carey won't tout toking up on "Price," but he defends the use of medical marijuana in a video posted online Thursday on Reason.tv.
"Smell that smell," the 49-year-old comedian says as he walks into a Los Angeles medical marijuana dispensary. "That's the smell of freedom."
The video is one of 20 Carey will host for the Reason Foundation, a nonprofit educational group whose ideas "some people call libertarian" and whose mission is to "advance freedom," said president David Nott.
WATCH VIDEO HERE
Carey offered to produce brief documentaries on topics ranging from traffic congestion to immigration for the foundation's Web site, Nott said.
"Drew Carey connects with regular people. ... He has a regular guy's look at things, and that's why this seems like a great thing," he said. "We're interested in freedom across the spectrum, and good journalism about these subjects is important in the world of ideas."
It's Carey's everyman appeal that likely helped him land the coveted job as host of "The Price Is Right." But executives from CBS and Fremantle Media, which produces "Price," had no comment Thursday about Carey's extracurricular work.
Carey also declined to comment Thursday, but he's not shy about his position on medical marijuana.
"I think it's clear by now that the federal government needs to reclassify marijuana," Carey says in the video. "People who need it should be able to get it safely and easily."
Though medical marijuana might be controversial, media experts and fans of "The Price Is Right" said Carey's political punditry will have little, if any, effect on the stalwart show or the comedian's career.
"Twenty years ago, this would have been career suicide," said longtime celebrity publicist Michael Levine. "But in the early part of the 21st century, a guy like Drew Carey can come out with his position, and it will not injure him."
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I'd like to encourage all of my readers to Contact CBS and thank them for not taking negative action against Drew Carey for his public stance on medical marijuana. Let them know we appreciate that.
1 comment:
I saw the video. It was very well done. When we see pot becoming more and more accepted by mainstream society, it gives me hope that we may see legalization within out lifetime.
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