A recent clip of California Governor Gavin Newsom has gone viral and is getting a lot of backlash.
Newsom – who is hoping to be the front runner in 2024 – said that, “Clean and sober is one of the biggest damn mistakes this country ever made…We all need to self-medicate periodically.”
Gavin Newsom riffing on alcoholism? What is going on: “Clean and sober is one of the biggest damn mistakes this country ever made…We all need to self medicate periodically”
I am begging Democrats to run on that platform.
(ho-ly cow)pic.twitter.com/reQybP3sGs— Justin Hart (@justin_hart) January 29, 2023<
What!?
The comments sparked outrage.
I know a lot of people in recovery that need to be clean and sober otherwise they’ll destroy their lives https://t.co/EDI8yTBsit
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) January 30, 2023
Maybe the California Governor had to “self-medicate” after he got his clock cleaned in court.
Newsom claimed the California law was intended to stop doctors from spreading misinformation or disinformation to their patients. However, a US District Judge has temporarily blocked this law from going into effect due to its “unconstitutionally vague” language.
The law at the center of the debate was Assembly Bill 2098, which was signed into law by in October. It stated that spreading misinformation or disinformation related to COVID-19, including information about the risks of the virus, prevention and treatment methods and vaccines, to patients should be considered “unprofessional conduct.”
However, a group of five doctors and two nonprofit advocacy groups sued the state of California, arguing that the law’s definition of misinformation violates the Due Process Clause of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution due to its vagueness. They argued that the phrase “scientific consensus” is poorly defined and that there are many questions left unanswered, such as who determines whether a consensus exists and how recent the consensus must be to be considered contemporary.
US District Judge William Shubb agreed with the plaintiffs, noting that the law does not apply consensus to “basic facts” like Down’s syndrome being caused by a chromosomal abnormality. He said COVID-19 is a disease that scientists have studied for only a few years and scientific conclusions surrounding it are “hotly contested.” He also ruled that the phrase of the law’s provision defining misinformation as false information “that is contradicted by contemporary scientific consensus contrary to the standard of care” is grammatically incoherent.
