In 2015 the DEA warned the State of Utah that if it legalized medical marijuana, there would be a stoned rabbit epidemic. That was one of the most blatant attempts at spreading reefer madness than I had seen. But what I read today may top even the stoned rabbit warning. A Congressman from Arizona stated this week that Trump’s wall needed to be built in order to keep out a nuclear weapon hidden in a bale of marijuana. Literally. Per Talking Points Memo:

A Republican congressman from Arizona defended the construction of a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border by arguing that a nuclear weapon could be smuggled across a porous border in a bale of marijuana.

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), whose district is just over 100 miles away from the U.S.-Mexico border, referenced the illicit drug trade in a discussion Wednesday with CNN’s Brianna Keilar on President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.

“The reality, Brianna, is that we have to measure all of the costs, ancillary and otherwise, and make the best decision that we can. But I can suggest to you that there are national security implications here for a porous border,” Franks said. “We sometimes used to make the point that if someone wanted to smuggle in a dangerous weapon, even a nuclear weapon, into America, how would they do it? And the suggestion was made, ‘Well, we’ll simply hide it in a bale of marijuana.'”

As the article goes on to point out, this is not the first time that the Representative has discussed the unfounded threat of a ‘nuclear bale of marijuana.’ On Franks’ own website he lists a quote from a speech he gave on the floor of the House in 2012:

Specifically imagine for a moment, Mr. Speaker, the scenario of Hezbollah, one of Iran’s terrorist proxies, gaining possession of just two nuclear warheads and bringing them across the border into the United States concealed, say, in bales of marijuana; then transporting them into the heart of two different, crowded, unnamed cities. Then calling and telling the White House exactly when and where the first one will be detonated, and then following through 60 seconds later.

Are we to truly believe that Trent Franks believes that marijuana has the ability to render a nuclear bomb invisible/undetectable? It appears to be a fear that he has expressed two times over a span of five years. Nevermind the fact that in five years (or ever for that matter) there has been no threat, or even hint of a threat, of a nuclear bale of weed. How would a bale of weed hide a nuclear weapon more than just about anything else? Why not use jello for Franks’ example?

If a border is ‘porous’ as Mr. Franks describes, it doesn’t matter what something is packaged with, if it gets through it gets through. So why bring marijuana into the conversation? I think it’s a safe assumption that Representative Franks doesn’t like marijuana (in addition to other things) and is trying to get a political 2-for-1. Why only push for an unrealistic wall when you can use it to push reefer madness too?