The Democratic Senator is making another run on the White House
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has announced that he wants to be the next Democratic nominee for President of the U.S. He has tried before, failing in his attempt. It is still too early to tell if he will find better success this time around, but, if he does, at least he’ll have support from the marijuana community.
Sanders is a strong proponent of drug policy reform. He has long fought to change the government’s stance on drugs, especially marijuana, and NORML has given him a grade of A+ for his continued persistence on the subject.
As he launched his latest endeavor to take over the White House, Sanders once again reiterated his position on drug reform, stating that the government “needs to end the destructive war on drugs.” Given his previous attempts to change federal policies – and the fact that he was the first major presidential candidate to endorse legalized marijuana – he is a strong candidate to help the marijuana industry move forward.
In a presidential rally held at George Mason University in 2015, Sanders stated, “Right now, marijuana is listed by the federal government as a Schedule I drug—meaning that it is considered to be as dangerous as heroin. That is absurd. In my view, the time is long overdue for us to remove the federal prohibition on marijuana.”
In 2016, he asserted, “It is an injustice that young people can have their lives upended by a non-violent cannabis conviction while Wall Street bankers avoid prosecution for financial crimes.”
All of the Democratic politicians who have already come forward to announce their bid for the presidency have stated that they would support marijuana reform. President Trump has said the same thing, so chances are good that, within the next three years at the latest, marijuana will finally be legalized across the U.S.
