In her bright-red fire engine truck, independent candidate for governor Barbara Johnson made a pit stop at the Boston University Barnes and Noble yesterday in a last-minute appeal to undecided voters.
After addressing students in a high school classroom in Roxbury, Johnson said BU was along the way to her next stop at Watertown that night. Johnson said she had a number of reforms in mind to help college students.
Johnson piqued the interest of many students with her campaign to legalize marijuana.
‘Absolutely, we should legalize it, tax it, and then put that money right back into rehab programs,’ Johnson proposed, noting many who abuse substances cannot afford rehabilitation programs.
‘Why criminalize people when it’s a personal use decision?’ Johnson asked. ‘Let’s just tax it like we tax alcohol. There’s no difference between that [marijuana] and drinking. Why not? No one has come up with a definitive answer to that yet.’
But foremost in Johnson’s mind was creating jobs for graduating students.
‘Boston has a large pool of intellectual resources. Companies keep leaving and going to Mexico and Texas. We have to capture industries here that have no incentive to leave,’ Johnson said.
She believes the fishing industry is the best example of an industry Boston should strive to keep because maintaining the fishing industry would benefit people ‘top to bottom’ as well as providing ocean-management students with jobs.
‘We have to revive the cod and haddock industries by building artificial reefs,’ Johnson said.
Most of all, Johnson said she wanted to see major corporate reform.
Johnson said she is also concerned about date rape laws and ineffective restraining orders.
While some scoffed at Johnson, who smoked as she spoke via microphone to those passing by, others took her more seriously.
‘I applaud what you’re doing, you’ve got character,’ said Shannon Mullen, a 23-year-old BU graduate student, pointing out Johnson brings something unique to the recent gubernatorial race.
‘I think she’s stirring up the race. She’s not just echoing the same tired rhetoric. Voters know they’ll be questioned by her. She’s colorful; she goes against the grain,’ Mullen said. ‘It’s something that needs to happen more often in politics.’
