City commission candidate in Central Kentucky lights marijuana pipe during debate
A Frankfort City Commission candidate made his stance on legalizing marijuana clear when he lit a marijuana pipe in the middle of a live campaign debate.
Tim Childers, a Frankfort native and one of 12 Frankfort City Commission candidates, lit a marijuana pipe while answering a question during a June 1 video debate.
“Let’s go against the state and legalize something,” Childers said as he held a lighter to his marijuana pipe. “Big money in that. Bunch of states doing it. I have the answers — candidate with solutions, people.”
Childers said he owns “Kentucky reefer,” as well as commercial property. When he began smoking during the debate, he was advocating for a waiver for new businesses that would allow them to wait three years before turning in government paperwork.
Childers was also recently quoted in the Frankfort State Journal as being opposed to removing the Jefferson Davis statue in the Capitol rotunda in the city.
“We can’t erase history,” Childers said in the article. “It was put there many many decades ago. I think instead of taking it down, we should teach people more about this history.”
In a video comment posted to Facebook, Childers said he was going to run for state Senate in two years.
“Keep that seat warm for me people,” Childers said. “That’s my seat. I called dibs on that.”
Sitting in front of a flag with a marijuana leaf on it, he said he had “a lot of ideas,” and said he would make his home city better before running for state senate.
The eight candidates with the most votes in the June 23 primary will move on to the general election in November. The top four in that race will be named city commissioners for Frankfort.
This story was originally published June 16, 2020 at 1:37 PM.