Though she doesn’t seem to have pulled ahead among the thick crop of 2020 democratic presidential candidates thus far, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand recently unveiled a statement claiming she would make cannabis legalization a priority if elected.
A blog post from Gillibrand’s campaign released last week confirmed that if elected, she would legalize marijuana at the federal level in the U.S. if she makes it to the White House in 2021. [1] Her plan’s specifics may differ from the rest of the crowded field of candidates, but it may effect less than Gillibrand and her fans would hope, as many of the others in the race have similar ideas. [2] [3]
According to the Medium post where the Gillibrand campaign announced the full plan last week, there are multiple considerations within the candidate’s platform. [1]
Among the list of these points, the Gillibrand campaign would “Establish a national process to make marijuana production and consumption clean, safe, and sustainable,” “expunge all non-violent marijuana convictions” and “normalize cannabis businesses’ tax treatment and allow access to the banking system.” [1]
Read the full list by reading about the plan below. [1]
Still, recent polling of the 2020 Democratic candidates place Gillibrand at under 1% of the democrat vote. So how do the front-runners compare on their attitudes to marijuana?
Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg and Kamala Harris are the highest Democratic candidates in the latest Quinnipiac poll, in that order. [1]
Biden, first among the running democrats, has agreed that decriminalization should be the approach to marijuana, but hasn’t called for legalization. [5]
Sanders, Warren and Buttigieg all approve of national marijuana legalization. Harris has also made statements endorsing legalization in very recent months, despite a career-long opposition to legalization and enforcement of drug laws as a prosecutor. [3]
The front-runners aren’t alone in their support for drug policy reform. In fact, it seems that just about any dark horse candidate for the nomination would also be a boon to marijuana legalization.
A spattering of other names on the list of candidates have come out in favor of federal legalization, including Amy Klobuchar, Beto O’Rourke, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Eric Swalwell.
Even Republican challenger to Donald Trump’s nomination, Bill Weld, supports legalization, and Trump himself has claimed he would support the STATES Act that aims to give states greater discretion over the substance. [3]
Despite all the progress on this score, proponents of cannabis more generally, especially CBD, will be unsatisfied by the regulatory confusion still looming large across the federal government.
Plus, even a recreational marijuana legalization measure could leave CBD regulations in the same strange and unsatisfying position where they are now.
Sources
[3] https://www.newsweek.com/2020-candidates-legal-marijuana-legalization-weed-1401593
[4] https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2627
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/16/politics/joe-biden-marijuana-decriminalization/
