Every Libertarian presidential nominee since the party’s inception in 1971 has advocated for ending prohibition.
Sanders Is Not The First Major-Party Presidential Candidate To Say Marijuana Should Be Legal
By Jacob Sullum via Forbes
Last Saturday, three days after Bernie Sanders unveiled legislation to repeal the federal ban on marijuana, Hillary Clinton proposed moving marijuana to a slightly less restrictive legal category. The former secretary of state’s faint echo of the Vermont senator’s bold bill—the first of its kind in the Senate—underlined how timid Clinton has always been on the subject of drug policy reform. Although the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has hadsecond thoughts about the mandatory minimum sentences she used to champion, the woman who a few years ago explained that we can’t legalize the drug trade because “there is just too much money in it” clearly is not ready to call off the war on weed, even though that is what most Americans seem to want.
By Jacob Sullum via Forbes
Last Saturday, three days after Bernie Sanders unveiled legislation to repeal the federal ban on marijuana, Hillary Clinton proposed moving marijuana to a slightly less restrictive legal category. The former secretary of state’s faint echo of the Vermont senator’s bold bill—the first of its kind in the Senate—underlined how timid Clinton has always been on the subject of drug policy reform. Although the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has hadsecond thoughts about the mandatory minimum sentences she used to champion, the woman who a few years ago explained that we can’t legalize the drug trade because “there is just too much money in it” clearly is not ready to call off the war on weed, even though that is what most Americans seem to want.
The dueling marijuana proposals also showed that Sanders, whose chances of winning his party’s presidential nomination are remote at best, is nevertheless pushing Clinton to address issues she would prefer to ignore. Marijuana legalization is especially popular among Democrats, and her proposal to facilitate medical studies by reclassifying the drug looks like a bone for primary voters who might embarrass her by favoring Sanders, who in some recent polls has drawn support from a third of Democrats.
While Sanders is having a noticeable impact on the drug policy debate within his party, he is not the first major-party presidential candidate to say marijuana should be legal. The other day I described Sanders as “the first major-party presidential candidate to endorse marijuana legalization at the state level and descheduling at the federal level.” That’s true if you focus on the current election cycle. But as a reader pointed out, at least one Democrat and one Republican have previously endorsed marijuana legalization while seeking a presidential nomination. Unlike Sanders, they had no discernible impact on the positions taken by other candidates, partly because they never attracted significant support from voters and partly because public opinion had not yet swung in favor of legalization.
When Mike Gravel, a Democrat who represented Alaska in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, ran for his party’s 2008 presidential nomination, he argued that marijuana should be treated like alcohol. “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to go to a liquor store and buy marijuana,” he said during an August 2007 debate. Although he participated in several debates, Gravel never polled above 1%, and he got just 0.14% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary. In March 2008 he announced that he was switching to the Libertarian Party. Last year he became a director of Cannabis Sativa Inc., a marijuana products company.
Cannabis Sativa’s president and CEO, Gary Johnson, happens to be the other major-party presidential candidate who clearly endorsed marijuana legalization years before Sanders. Johnson, who was governor of New Mexico from 1995 through 2002, made headlines by criticizing the war on drugs during his second term, when he unsuccessfully urged legislators to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize possession of small amounts for recreational use. Johnson went further after launching his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in April 2011. “What I’m advocating is the legalization of marijuana,” he said in an interview with Sean Hannity the following month. In a June 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Johnson pointed out that “marijuana is a lot safer” than alcohol.
When Mike Gravel, a Democrat who represented Alaska in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, ran for his party’s 2008 presidential nomination, he argued that marijuana should be treated like alcohol. “There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to go to a liquor store and buy marijuana,” he said during an August 2007 debate. Although he participated in several debates, Gravel never polled above 1%, and he got just 0.14% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary. In March 2008 he announced that he was switching to the Libertarian Party. Last year he became a director of Cannabis Sativa Inc., a marijuana products company.
Cannabis Sativa’s president and CEO, Gary Johnson, happens to be the other major-party presidential candidate who clearly endorsed marijuana legalization years before Sanders. Johnson, who was governor of New Mexico from 1995 through 2002, made headlines by criticizing the war on drugs during his second term, when he unsuccessfully urged legislators to legalize medical marijuana and decriminalize possession of small amounts for recreational use. Johnson went further after launching his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in April 2011. “What I’m advocating is the legalization of marijuana,” he said in an interview with Sean Hannity the following month. In a June 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, Johnson pointed out that “marijuana is a lot safer” than alcohol.
Gary Johnson (left) and Mike Gravel (Image: Cannabis Sativa Inc.)
That Rolling Stone article called Johnson “the GOP’s invisible candidate,” and he did not get much more attention in the months that followed. He was excluded from most of the GOP debates, and in December 2011 he announced that he was withdrawing from the race. Like Gravel, Johnson switched to the Libertarian Party, winning its 2012 presidential nomination. Johnson received nearly 1% of the popular vote, just a bit less than Ed Clark, the most successful Libertarian presidential candidate, who got 1.1% in 1980.
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