Issue Position: Drug War

Issue Position

States are already starting to allow medical use or outright decriminalize marijuana use. It is time to decriminalize this and quit throwing people in jail and wrecking lives. Victim-less crime is not a crime. The drug war has led to an absurd militarization of our police, an assault on minority communities, and loss of civil liberties.

Our Schedule 1 drug list is so absurdly restrictive that it is impossible to even research drugs on it. The Schedule 1 drug list should be dropped to make it easier for research and looking into alternative drugs. Our drug war has not stopped the opioid crises which is a health issue, and not a criminal problem.

The drug war enables violent gangs and criminals. Creating a black market always introduces those willing to operate more violently and in the shadows. Ending the drug war means removing the financial streams these violent criminals use to hurt people. It would reduce drug traffic on the border. It would make us safer.

It is time to decriminalize marijuana nationally.

Because people ask this of politicians: I do not smoke marijuana, and I never have. I do not smoke cigarettes. I do not drink alcohol. I have never been drunk in my entire life. I have no personal interest in drugs. I simply believe that people own their own bodies and lives should not be ruined by a zealous and puritanical government harming people it claims to want to help.

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