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Where the Presidential Candidates Stand on Medical Marijuana

Posted September 15, 2008

There are some stark differences between the answers and attitudes towards cannabis by the presidential candidates. We’ve dug up some evidence for each candidate to show where they stand on this controversial issue.

Barack Obama has previously stated that he was in favor of marijuana decriminalization. When he was running for the senate in 2004 he told Illinois college students:

“I think we need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws, but I’m not somebody who believes in legalization of marijuana.”

After this video was discovered and posted online his campaign gave The Washington Times two different responses within 24-hours. The first was from Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor in which he says that Obama has always been in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. The second response was basically a flip-flop on the issue as the campaign stated that he does not support eliminating criminal penalties for marijuana possession and use.

He has mentioned that he is in favor of ending federal raids on medical marijuana patients where the states allow sick people to obtain it. In the following video he replies to a medical marijuana patient, “I would not have the justice department prosecuting or raiding medical marijuana users, it’s not a good use of our resources.”

In yet another video he clarifies his position a bit more and says, “If it’s an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma or as a cancer treatment then I think that should be appropriate because there really is no difference between that and a doctor prescribing morphine or anything else.”

Obama’s running mate, Joe Biden, has been much more of an advocate against drugs in general but his stance on medical marijuana is a little hazy. In 2007 he was quoted as saying:

“I spent a lot of time in the hospital, fortunately I wasn’t, for most of the time, in serious pain. But, you know, lying there for 59 days in an ICU unit you see people and hear people in pain. We have not devoted nearly enough science or time to deal with the pain management and chronic pain management that exists. There’s got to be a better answer than marijuana. There’s got to be a better answer than that.”

In the recent presidential primaries, however, he said he was in favor of ending federal raids on medical marijuana patients.

Frontrunner for the republican ticket, John McCain, has been the least compassionate and educated on the issue of medical marijuana. When asked if people could count on him ending federal raids for the sick and dying he said “not yet” and basically says he hasn’t been “into the issue” while making a position to ignore current state laws and keep with the status quo.

In this video he flat-out denies that raids are going on and won’t even pledge support to end them:

Once again showing how stubborn he is, McCain belittles the gentlemen asking if he will end federal raids and then has to apologize at the end:

Do we really need another president that refuses to look at the science regarding medical marijuana and take a hard stance against its use?

McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin, has admitted to smoking cannabis in the past. “I can’t claim a Bill Clinton and say that I never inhaled,” she echoed to the Ancorage Daily News in 2006.

She does come from a state where medical marijuana is decriminalized and hasn’t opposed the law but has said she doesn’t support legalizing cannabis, fearing the message it would send to her kids.

With the stubbornness of John McCain and the progressive thinking of Barack Obama, it’s pretty clear who will be a more likely candidate to enact change at a federal level regarding the use of medical marijuana.

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