Hillary Clinton Reaffirms Baby Steps Forward on Cannabis

   
| February 19, 2016 5:27 pm | 0 comments

Hillary Clinton reaffirmed her commitment to continue President Barack Obama’s policy of allowing states to move forward with their own cannabis laws and her support for moving marijuana from a Schedule I controlled substance to Schedule II in an interview with Nevada Public Radio. While the Democratic front-runner wouldn’t move the cannabis community backwards, she certainly doesn’t provide the great step forward advocated by her challenger Bernie Sanders.

Moving marijuana to Schedule II would have a symbolic effect and is a (baby) step in the right direction, it won’t provide immediate benefits needed, from IRS 280E reform to ending unnecessary arrests for marijuana offenses. The question of marijuana policy is very important for Nevada voters as the state will be deciding whether to legalize cannabis for all adults this November.

From NPR:

Do you support legalization of marijuana?

I support states making this decision so that we can have some good on- the-ground experience as to what works and quite frankly, what doesn’t work. Four states have already taken the steps to legalize. Many others have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. We call the states the laboratories of democracy. And on this issue it’s a very important role for the states to play. I know there is a ballot initiative here in Nevada and I’ll watch that very closely. And as president, I will try to make sure that we learn the lessons we do everything that we can to follow up on what the states have learned. And we certainly (need to) do more research into marijuana for medical uses. That is why I want to move it from a Schedule One to a Schedule Two immediately. (I added “need to” as there appears to be a typo or some information missing.)

On many issues, it seems like Bernie Sanders has moved Hillary Clinton into more progressive positions, or at least rhetoric. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem to be the case on marijuana policy. Former Secretary Clinton has disavowed the tough-but-not-smart-on-crime bill that she championed and her husband signed into law in 1994, but without ending federal cannabis prohibition, and eventually legalizing marijuana, we won’t see the real gains we need to see in criminal justice policy across this country. Marijuana is an easy target for law enforcement and the sight and smell of cannabis is often the cause of law enforcement counters, particularly with young black and brown men, that can have tragic consequences.

Bernie Sanders voted for President Clinton’s 1994 Crime Bill, so he doesn’t get off the hook either, but his racial and criminal justice platforms include a necessary component to truly ending our era of mass incarceration–ending cannabis prohibition. While Bill Maher is right, our nation does need to legalize cannabis from coast to coast, but ending federal prohibition will immediately end the investigation, arrest and imprisonment for federal marijuana offenses while greatly impacting state marijuana enforcement as well. Without incentives and cooperation from the federal government, many local police departments will change marijuana policy.

(Featured Photo Credit: Jim Cole/Associated Press/File)