Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she supports policies geared toward the decriminalization of marijuana, but she is not entirely sure how to implement this concept at the national level, according to a report from Marijuana.com.
Pulled from the latest WikiLeaks email hack, a transcript from a 2015 meeting with Black Lives Matter reveals that Clinton is all for the elimination of criminal penalties associated with marijuana possession. However, the former Secretary of State appears to be somewhat confused about how to get the entire scope of the nation on board with this reform.
“From my perspective we do need to look hard at decriminalizing behavior that is not harmful, that is not leading to violence, and try to figure out how best to do that,” Clinton said.
“I’m not sure exactly how you would implement it and how — you know, because remember, most of the laws you’re talking about are state and local laws,” she continued. “I mean, the federal government can encourage, can make suggestions, can provide incentives, but most criminal law, most policing, all of the problems that we’ve been discussing are really controlled at the local and the state level. So you have to have a buy-in by others, not just by the federal government.”
It was just last week that Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, uncovered documentation showing that Clinton spoke out against marijuana legalization during a 2014 paid speaking engagement at Xerox.
When asked her position on the legalization of pot by the company’s chairman and CEO, Ursula Burns, Clinton said she opposed this reform “in all senses of the word.”
However, over the weekend, a preparatory document found in the hacked emails of Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, suggests that she intends to keep following the path of the Obama Administration if she wins the November election.
“Like the Obama Administration’s current approach to the criminal enforcement of federal marijuana laws, YOU would not intervene in states that are reforming their own marijuana laws, as long as those states adhere to certain federal priorities,” a debate briefing reads. “These priorities include not selling to minors, preventing inter-state transport of marijuana, and keeping organized crime out of the industry.”
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll shows Clinton is ahead of Republican Donald Trump by around 11-points. This morning, the New York Times predicted that Clinton has a 90 percent chance of winning the election.
There are roughly only 21 days left until the voters decide who will take over the White House in 2017.
