Sanders would vote for legalization, Clinton refuses to take a stand

[F4lconF16]

COOPER: Governor, thank you. The issue now, particularly in this state, is recreational marijuana. I want to go to Juan Carlos Lopez.

LOPEZ: Thank you, Anderson.

Senator Sanders, right here in Nevada, there will be a measure to legalize recreational marijuana on the 2016 ballot. You've said you smoked marijuana twice; it didn't quite work for you. If you were a Nevada resident, how would you vote?

SANDERS: I suspect I would vote yes.

(APPLAUSE)

And I would vote yes because I am seeing in this country too many lives being destroyed for non-violent offenses. We have a criminal justice system that lets CEOs on Wall Street walk away, and yet we are imprisoning or giving jail sentences to young people who are smoking marijuana. I think we have to think through this war on drugs...

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: ...which has done an enormous amount of damage. We need to rethink our criminal justice system, we we've got a lot of work to do in that area.

O'MALLEY: Juan Carlos?

(APPLAUSE)

LOPEZ: Secretary Clinton, you told Christiane Amanpour you didn't smoke pot when you were young, and you're not going to start now.

(LAUGHTER)

LOPEZ: When asked about legalizing recreational marijuana, you told her let's wait and see how it plays out in Colorado and Washington. It's been more than a year since you've said that. Are you ready to take a position tonight?

CLINTON: No. 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. I do support the use of medical marijuana, and I think even there we need to do a lot more research so that we know exactly how we're going to help people for whom medical marijuana provides relief.

So, I think we're just at the beginning, but I agree completely with the idea that we have got to stop imprisoning people who use marijuana. Therefore, we need more states, cities, and the federal government to begin to address this so that we don't have this terrible result that Senator Sanders was talking about where we have a huge population in our prisons for nonviolent, low-level offenses that are primarily due to marijuana.

I'd like a stronger response from Sanders, but okay. I'd like to see him back total decriminalization of all drug use.

Are you kidding me, Clinton? You still won't take a position? Come on, now. It's 2015. Smoke a bowl, realize it's not meth, and pull your head out of your ass.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. To be honest, I'll be voting against legalization here in Ohio this next ballot.

Not because I'm against pot, but because I'm against state monopolies being handed out to largely out of state investor growers. If we're going to have more than legalization for medical use, I want it all - I want pot strains in seed catalogues, for any gardener who wants to grow it, not a strictly limited number of farms that grow for profit for a limited number of wealthy investors.

[F4lconF16]

2. I would have voted against the Oregon initiative a while back.

It's not a good idea to get trapped like we are in Washington, where you need a license to grow.

But that's a different issue than the debate brought up, I think.

[6chars]

3. 24 years of toking Presidents locking up tokers

is beyond hypocritical. OK, Hillary didn't light up, fair enough - I definitely believe that - but she did dance with Fleetwood Mac, so she should certainly know better just like Bill, W and Barack. This is a litmus test issue in a way - every one of these presidents knows they are being a hypocrite and I don't like that. Hopefully Hillary will evolve on the issue if she is elected.

[F4lconF16]

4. Ugh. But she won't.

Clinton and Obama policy has been a huge part of the massive federal expansion of the war on drugs and the industry behind it. Neither have done much in the way of openly resisting, and both actively made the problems worse. This gets lost in amongst all of the other issues.

The War on Drugs is in my opinion the worst war the United States has ever had. It's done more harm to what rights we have now than, I believe, the Iraq War. The Supreme Court has shredded any meaning that might have been found within our legal system, as it's now a cruel farce that employs colorblind equality under the law to wage a literal ground war on communities of color in utterly perverse, sociopathic, full-color HD racism.

It's mildly a big deal.

This is where my biggest worries come in with Sanders, too. He gives in on issues that are key parts of being a Democratic Socialist. He isn't going to nationalize the big corporate-state-industrial complexes. That is going to be necessary at some point. Right now, I don't know what he really thinks on it. He's so far been willing to give in a fair amount to maintain his presence in American politics.

How much will he give in on once he has the presidency? I think he knows what is necessary. His record hasn't shown he will do it. I don't expect to ever see him calling for the prison-industrial industry to be nationalized. Maybe the healthcare industry. Sanders has been going at them for a while.

But at the very least, he's someone who does want to call out 90% of the bullshit, and I think he will. Americans need basic education right now. Worth it to vote for him because of that. I'll take him over the alternatives--