DEMS TAKING KUHN TO WOODSHED OVER ALLEGED MARIJUANA STATEMENT

It's A Race For The State Senate But Also A Battle Over Who Said What About
Marijuana.

Democrats are alleging that Republican candidate John Kuhn is pro-pot based
on remarks he made to students weeks ago at Stall High School. Kuhn,
meanwhile, says that Democrats are taking the incident out of context and
that he's a parent who is 100 percent opposed to drugs.

Whatever the case, the dispute has smoked its way heavily into the race in
the form of thousands of mail-outs to Senate District 43 voters.

Before the October primary, 12th grade government teacher Willie Desinger
invited all the candidates to individually speak to his class.
Democrat Leon Stavrinakis accepted, and so did Republican Kuhn. Kuhn,
according to Desinger, expressed to him during a phone call that he also
had some Libertarian views.

"I told him I'd ask him some questions about that political philosophy,"
Desinger said during an interview this week.

When Kuhn showed up, Desinger had prepared questions for the students to
ask, including one that read: "Do you favor decriminalization of
marijuana?" Kuhn answered: "Yes," according to Desinger, and then he
reportedly went on to describe the war on drugs as a failure.

The teacher said that no one at the school seemed shocked at Kuhn's answer,
given that Libertarians are known to have fairly liberal views on an
individual's choice to use drugs. Desinger also quoted Kuhn as saying he
was personally against drug use and felt drugs were bad for anyone.

But the S.C. Democratic Senate Caucus is now using the incident for
political gain sending out hundreds of oversized political flyers to Senate
District 43 voters that portray Kuhn as favoring decriminalizing pot. They
feature a picture of Kuhn and another picture of a teen-ager lighting a joint.

"Say no to John Kuhn and his dangerous ideas," it reads.

Stavrinakis, a former assistant prosecutor, said that Kuhn's answer shows
his true feelings about the war on drugs and that he should not have taken
his answer so lightly, especially around school students. "It was
irresponsible," he said.

Kuhn said his stance has been taken out of context and that he was
"role-playing," and acting out what he thought a Libertarian candidate
would say.

"It was a civics lesson," he said, saying he went to play the role of a
Libertarian. "Never in a million years did I see that being twisted into my
being in favor of decriminalizing drugs."

No recording exists of the exchange, but Desinger told The Post and Courier
he never asked Kuhn to play or adopt any role about political views.

Desinger, who calls himself an independent and first met Kuhn while the
candidate was walking house to house in the district, also said the
Democrats have warped some of Kuhn's response. For instance, their mail-out
says look out for "John Kuhn's idea to legalize drugs."

"John Kuhn didn't have a plan to legalize drugs," Desinger said. "He did
not address other drugs (during his talk) and did not use the word
legalization."