The presidential candidate weighs in on marijuana reform
Presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke thinks that the federal government needs to act quickly to introduce medical reform. He also believes that Big Pharma companies should face consequences for their actions, some of which have created addictive opioids that have killed thousands and led to an epidemic of opioid addiction. O’Rourke believes that the executives of those companies need to be held accountable and that some even deserve jail time.
Speaking at a political rally in New Hampshire this week, O’Rourke stated, “We’re going to acknowledge an incredibly warped system of justice in this country.” He singled out Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, over its products’ role in the addiction problem, and added, “The vast majority of those who are addicted today began with a legal prescription. Those executives understood the addictive properties of what they sold and did not share that with the public, and not a single one of them has done a single day in jail.”
The politician continued, “Yet, we have the largest prison population on the face of the planet, disproportionately comprised of people of color, far too many there for possession of a substance that is legal in most states of this country, marijuana.”
Three of the Democratic presidential candidates have all spoken out against pharmaceutical companies and two – O’Rourke and Tulsi Gabbard – are in favor of marijuana reform. Only Kirsten Gillibrand from New York has not put her support behind marijuana changes at the federal level.