Apparently, in 1996, Newt Gingrich proposed the death penalty for people importing drugs into the United States:

As Speaker of the House, Gingrich introduced the “Drug Importer Death Penalty Act of 1996.”...It would have applied to anyone convicted more than once of carrying 100 doses — or about two ounces — or marijuana across the border. Defendants would have had a window of 18 months to file their one and only appeal...[Gingrich said,] “I have made the decision that I love our children enough that we will kill you if you do this.”

But that's not the kicker. The kicker is that Newt Gingrich has admitted to smoking marijuana in college. How does he justify cracking down on modern-day pot users when he was a big old pot smoker back in the day? His answer is about as hypocritical as you can get:

“See, when I smoked pot it was illegal, but not immoral,” Gingrich reportedly told Wall Street Journal reporter Hilary Stout in 1996. “Now, it is illegal AND immoral. The law didn’t change, only the morality… That’s why you get to go to jail and I don’t.”

I would love to see Gingrich reinvestigate this issue, now that he's the frontrunning presidential candidate of his party. Hopefully some patriotic Iowan will launch the question at Gingrich at one of his rallies. I wonder whether this murderous stance on marijuana affects Gary Busey's emphatic Gingrich endorsement?