Orrin Hatch, senior Senator from Utah, knows the Constitution and speaks well of it, claims the current American government runs according to it, pretends to respect it, but constantly tries to inflict his religious beliefs on the rest of us with the force of law and in direct contradiction to the clear purpose of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to prevent just such an abuse - the possibility of mobilizing the police power of the Republic against a particular, peaceful group of people who embrace different beliefs, or who practice religion differently or not at all, or who have been made unpopular after society has been bombarded with pejorative nonsense about them coming out of a particular 'religious' perspective.
Reefer Madness began in America with assertive lies like, 'marijuana is the devil’s weed'; it is perpetuated only through the warped reality and correspondingly warped demonizing efforts of Mormon minister Orrin Hatch and his fellow intolerant, mostly male, mostly 'republican' party, closed-minded, lying prohibitionists. Hatch rails against the 'marijuana plague' and abuses his power and position as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee to block or derail any and all efforts to normalize the relationship between our government and our fellow citizens who happen to be cannabis afficianados.
There is tremendous irony in his support for laws like the Religious Freedom Restoration act and his opposition to a religious defense for spiritual marijuana use and users, such as the Rastafarians, in his charade as a champion of limited government and the people’s liberty when it is viewed in the light of his insistence on long, mandatory-minimum prison sentences for those adults who make a drug choice Hatch doesn’t approve of, even to the extent of opposing doctor/patient access to marijuana for purely medicinal use, and in his usual politeness and insistence on adherence to decorum in his committee compared to the shabby, insulting treatment he has accorded, over the many years, to any experts who have tried to present testimony before Congress that marijuana is not as harmful, addictive, and 'infectious' as his prohibitionist propaganda claims.
In short, Orrin Hatch is the True Believer, fanatical to the point of being willing to destroy the nation to save the nation (to borrow Vietnam war-lover rationale). He has supported each and every step - and initiated many of them - on the drug war’s long road to totalitarian control and punishment of millions of his peaceful fellow citizens. Unlike many of our 'representatives' who seem to have never read the Constitution and have no idea of what their oath of office binds them to preserve and protect, Orrin Hatch has no defense of ignorance for his anti-Constitutional attacks on the lives and liberties of the people.