Pubdate: Tue, 07 Jul 2015
Source: Honolulu Star-Advertiser (HI)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact: 
http://www.staradvertiser.com/info/Star-Advertiser_Letter_to_the_Editor.html
Website: http://www.staradvertiser.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5154
Author: Kristen Wyatt,Associated Press

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES GIVE LEEWAY TO POT LAWS

DENVER (AP) - Presidential candidates are talking about marijuana in 
ways unimaginable not long ago.

White House hopefuls in both parties are taking donations from people 
in the new marijuana industry, which is investing heavily in 
political activism as a route to expanded legalization.

Several Republicans, like Democrats, are saying they won't interfere 
with states that are legalizing a drug still forbidden under federal 
law. And at conservative policy gatherings, Republicans are 
discussing whether drug sentences should be eased.

A quarter-century after Bill Clinton confessed he tried marijuana but 
insisted "I didn't inhale," the taboo against marijuana is shrinking 
at the highest level of politics, just as it appears to be with the public.

"When I was growing up, it was political suicide for a candidate to 
talk about pot being legal," said Tim Cullen, owner of Colorado 
Harvest Co., a chain of medical and recreational marijuana dispensaries.

Cullen attended a Hillary Rodham Clinton fundraiser in New Mexico 
last month and talked to the Democratic candidate about her position 
on legalizing pot.

"She's not outwardly hostile to the idea, which is a big step 
forward," Cullen said. "She's willing to openly talk about it at least."

A slim majority of Americans, 53 percent, said in a Pew Research 
Center survey in March that the drug should be legal. As recently as 
2006, less than a third supported marijuana legalization in another 
measure of public opinion, the General Social Survey.

Politicians are shifting, but slowly.

Republican candidates Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz and Rick Perry are among 
those who say states should decide marijuana laws, even as they brand 
legalization a bad idea. Altogether, 23 states and the District of 
Columbia are flouting federal law by allowing marijuana use for 
medical or recreational purposes.

In June, Rand Paul became the first major-party presidential 
candidate to hold a fundraiser with the new marijuana industry, 
courting about 40 donors in Denver. But the Kentucky senator used a 
private back door, and aides erected a screen so photographers 
couldn't see the candidate standing by a green Cannabis Business Summit sign.

Not all candidates say leave it to the states. New Jersey Gov. Chris 
Christie and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum say they would 
fight to roll back marijuana legalization efforts in states such as Colorado.

Democrats are generally less critical of states legalizing pot, but 
they're treading carefully, too.

Clinton said last year that more research needed to be done on 
marijuana's medical value.

As for her main Democratic rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders sounds 
lukewarm about legalization, despite his counterculture roots and 
liberal social views. He told Yahoo News that pot should be 
decriminalized, but he was not ready to go beyond that.

"There are a lot of loose bricks in the walls of resistance to 
changing drug laws in America," said William Martin, who studies drug 
policy at Rice University. "It's no longer a silly question, 
legalizing marijuana."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom