Sanders and Clinton Offer Cannabis Clarity and Confusion
Both candidates exaggerate marijuana's role in mass incarceration.
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, agree that people should not be sentenced to prison for smoking pot. But that does not happen under current law, except for rare cases involving repeat offenders. In my latest Forbes column, I explain how exaggerating marijuana's role in mass incarceration confuses the public about what is actually wrong with pot prohibition:
During the Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night, Bernie Sanders, the socialist senator from Vermont, became the first major-party candidate to endorse marijuana legalization. Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, by contrast, stuck with a wait-and-see position, saying, "I think that we have the opportunity through the states that are pursuing recreational marijuana to find out a lot more than we know today." But both candidates seemed confused about marijuana's role in the war on drugs and its contribution to this country's world-beating incarceration rate.