During a recent press conference, former President Donald Trump agreed that individuals should not be criminalized over cannabis, seeing as it was being legalized in different parts of the country. He added that he would soon reveal his position on the marijuana legalization bill on the November ballot in Florida, where he is a resident.
A reporter had asked Trump about the current administration’s push to reschedule marijuana as well as statements made by Vice President Kamala Harris on how individuals need not be incarcerated over simple marijuana offenses. Trump responded, noting that it was hard to have individuals in jail for something that was now legal.
The statement, while not explicitly endorsing major cannabis reform, represents an example of Trump moving away from the harsh words he has been using to campaign against drugs. At the moment, it is unclear if he will choose to support the resolution to legalize marijuana in Florida which he will have the chance to vote on.
Trump also talked about individuals he had issued presidential pardons for, including Alice Johnson, who received a life-in-prison sentence with no possibility of parole after being convicted for being part of a cocaine trafficking ring in the ‘90s. He stated that Johnson was a fantastic woman who had served 24 years in prison for being on a call that involved drugs. The former president added that she was great and that her incarceration was largely about cannabis, which was in most cases, legalized at the state level.
In addition, he took a jab at Harris over her prosecutorial record on cannabis, claiming that she had put thousands of Black people in jail for marijuana offenses.
His approach, while deceptive, was noteworthy in the way that the Republican presidential nominee hinted that he disagreed with the criminalization of individuals over cannabis and used the fact that Harris played a role in the racially disproportionate mass incarceration as leverage.
Meanwhile, Harris chose the governor of Minnesota, Tim Waltz, as her running mate. Waltz has supported various marijuana reform measures in Congress and even called for prohibition to end when he was campaigning to be governor. In addition, he signed a comprehensive legalization measure into law last year.
While president, Trump stood his ground on cannabis laws needing to be handled at the state level. No major crackdowns on marijuana programs were conducted as some had feared, even when then Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked the federal enforcement guidance enacted in the Obama era.
As the presidential candidates of the major parties seem to agree that cannabis criminalization is wrong, industry actors such as Cronos Group Inc. (NASDAQ: CRON) (TSX: CRON) can only hope that this rhetoric turns into concrete policy changes aimed at ending the prohibition of marijuana at the federal level.
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