American 2016 Presidential Election and Legalisation of Marijuana
LAGOS APRIL 21ST (URHOBOTODAY)-It’s April 20, or 4/20, a day when marijuana enthusiasts gather, legally or otherwise, to celebrate the joys of smoking pot — a sort of stoner Fourth of July.
Last year, President Barack Obama gave weed activists a boost when he said he considers marijuana no more dangerous than alcohol.
“As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life,” Obama told the New Yorker after Colorado’s historic legalization of recreational marijuana. “I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol.”
So where does the crop of current and possible 2016 presidential candidates stand on the issue of marijuana?
“I smoked marijuana when I was at Andover,” Bush told the Boston Globe in an interview earlier this year. “It was pretty common.”
But the former Florida governor has taken a hard-line approach when it comes to legalization. Last fall, Bush released a statement urging Florida voters to reject a ballot initiative that would have legalized medical marijuana in the Sunshine State.
“Allowing large-scale, marijuana operations to take root across Florida, under the guise of using it for medicinal purposes, runs counter” to efforts to make Florida “a world-class location to start or run a business, a family-friendly destination for tourism and a desirable place to raise a family or retire,” Bush said.
A majority of Florida voters (57 percent) disagreed, but the measure fell short of the 60 percent approval it needed to pass.
In an appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February, however, Bush said that while he opposes marijuana legalization, it should be up to the states to decide.
REUTERS
