Smoking pot on steps of the Capitol?

>>> biggest cities.

>>> it's a tricky thing politically to jump on the bandwagon because i think that maybe people see it as taboo still, so i --

>> no politician, even if they thought it was a good idea --

>> oh my god.

>> nearly 19 months and zach lit a joint during a discussion about an initiative to legalize marijuana. someone else has taken up the torch and is lighting up on the campaign trail.

>> a friend of mine. i'm the only candidate willing to get arrested on the steps of the capitol. medical marijuana has improved my life. i don't think another person should spend an hour in jail for marijuana. that's why i'm pro legalization.

>> joining me now is andy caffery from california 's newly con figured second district. good afternoon, sir.

>> hi, martin.

>> you use marijuana for medicinal purposes , as i understand it. what are your medical reasons?

>> well, i have three neurological conditions. post-traumatic stress disorder. attention deficit disorder and obsessive, compulsive tendencies. so i use it for sort of a tranquilizer effect. i use it for focusing. and i use it to get to sleep.

>> those are strongly mental reasons for using the medication.

>> that's right. i don't have a physical ailment that i'm using it for pain. 16 states have legalized medicinal marijuana . what is your argument for the legalization of marijuana all together.

>> well, i live in humboldt county . we have ha new district. where i live the median income is $35,000 a year. in ma rin it's $85,000 a year. and our economy, the bedrock is marijuana. $1.6 billion a year comes into our county. that's a quarter to over half of the income of the county. so a lot of people locally that might make it legal in california , and there shall spread the number of people who can groet it themselves. then there's more of a market. people like tom hartman who say if it's legal he would smoke marijuana.

>> it sounds like you're arguing this from an economic perspective as opposed to medicinal.

>> well, it's not either/or. as you heard in the clip my primary reason is because i don't think another person should spend another hour in jail. i don't want to call them crimes.

>> one recent study found who smoked mar ijuana at least five times were twice as likely to develop psychosis over the next ten years than those who don't smoke pot . does that have any effect on your argument? i use a place with the fine nest the world. the emerald triangle . i talked to the doctor who has been the doctor in the area. ask him act effects on people. if anybody knew he would know. and he said the only effect that he's seen in his entire career were two people who smoked about 20 joints a day and had esophagus bleeding. he also had concerns about young people from 15 to 18. i've heard studies for england about that, who you were talking about. i'm not here as an advocate for using marijuana. i hesitated a long time before allowing the image to be created of me smoking a joint. i don't want my being a congressman to cause young people to smoke marijuana. but i feel that it's our right to not be in jail. it's our the right to have an economy the lives are ruined when president obama comes in here and shuts the down the dispensary.

>> candidate for congress from california , andy caffrey. thank you so much for joining us tonight.

>> my pleasure, martin.

>>> coming up, the birther who is never went away and are trying to keep the president off the arizona ballot. that's next. [ male announcer