New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie resumed his attacks against Republican presidential candidate Rand Paul Thursday, accusing him of ignoring the plight of adolescent drug abusers and maintaining a nonchalant attitude towards heroin addiction.
During a campaign appearance in New Hampshire Wednesday, Paul reportedly told supporters: “If you work all day long you don’t have time to do heroin.”
Asked about the Kentucky senator’s comments on CNN’s “New Day,” Thursday, Christie said they were “insulting.”
“You talk to any parent around this country who’s lost a child to drug addiction and say, ‘Well if they’d just worked, they wouldn’t have tried drugs,’ — it’s shameful [and] it’s unfortunate,” Christie told host Alisyn Camerota.
The two-term governor, who’s also vying for the Republican nomination, has positioned himself as one of the most outspoken GOP candidates when it comes to the war on drugs. He threatened to veto a bill passed by the New Jersey state legislature in June that would have decriminalized the possession of marijuana in small amounts and has repeatedly said he would “crack down” on states that have legalized cannabis for recreational use as president.
Christie doubled down on this stance against drug decriminalization Thursday, saying “drug addiction is a disease and it’s a failing to try drugs in the first place.”
“We’re saying now to first-time, nonviolent drug offenders, ‘You’re not going to prison, you’re going to mandatory treatment,” Christie said with regard to his approach in the state of New Jersey. “And you know what’s happening to recidivism rates across the country? If you’ve not been to drug court, your recidivism rate is 62 percent, if you’ve been to drug court, it’s 16 percent.”
Christie later added that the work he’s done to adjudicate drug offenses separately in New Jersey and ensure that residents receive treatment demonstrates that his pro-life stance goes beyond simply opposing abortion.
“Here’s the difference between me and Sen. Paul on this: I’m pro-life and so is he. But I’m pro-life for the entire life and I believe not only should we be pro-life while the child is in the womb, but you need to be pro-life for the 16-year-old who’s on the floor of the county lockup because he/she’s addicted to drugs,” he said.
“We know treatment works, we know it’s a better way [and] a more effective way to combat the drug problem in this country,” Christie added.
Christie and Paul may disagree on how to combat drug addiction, but the two share one thing in common: both are floundering at the bottom of the GOP field and could be kicked off the main stage at the next Republican debate Sept. 16.
According to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, Christie and Paul are currently tied for the No. 10 spot with just 3 percent support among GOP voters each.
