June 11, 2015 11:24 AM UTC

Polis "Smoking Crayfish" Retort Goes Viral

• 9 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

The Denver Post’s Lynn Bartels reported earlier this week on an animated exchange between Rep. Jared Polis of Colorado and a Louisiana Republican, Rep. John Fleming, over whether the federal government should keep its claws off Colorado’s legalized marijuana. Rep. Fleming instigated the fight by making a number of dubious claims about supposed negative impacts of legalized marijuana in Colorado, which Polis disputed with his trademark forcefulness:

Rep. Polis, a Democrat, took offense at the comments by Rep. John Fleming, R-La., who talked about what he sees as the negative impacts of legalizing marijuana on Colorado and its children. The Colorado congressman disputed Fleming’s concerns…

“I’m not going to send federal troops into Louisiana to arrest people for whatever you do down there, smoking crayfish. Want me to ban that and send federal troops down there? I bet maybe smoking crayfish ain’t good for you. What if it’s fried? Might clog your arteries, huh?”

Well folks, the internets got ahold of Polis’ comments, turning them into, among other things, some hilarious Vines:

Others attempted to visualize just what “smoking crayfish” would look like:

Not something we’d want to puff ourselves, but like Rep. Polis says, it’s the right of Louisianans if they decide to:

“I just wish that you would leave my sovereign state of Colorado alone. Let our people and our state government decide what we want to do with regard to marijuana rather than a federal agent going around trying to arrest people for doing activities that are fully legal under state law. That’s all I ask,” Polis said.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Pelican Staters.