Legalizing marijuana has long been part of Bernie Sanders’ policy platform: The Democratic presidential candidate has called for an end to the “destructive ‘war on drugs” as part of his racial justice and criminal justice reform policies—along with eliminating private prisons, the death penalty, cash bail and mandatory minimum sentencing.
But in a recent interview, Sanders got specific, pledging to legalize marijuana by executive order.
“When I ran for president for the Democratic nomination in 2016, I talked about a broken criminal justice system, which ends up having in the United States more people in jail than any other country,” Sanders told Joe Rogan on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast. “And what I call for then, and I call for now, is the legalization of marijuana in America.”
Sanders outlined his plans in response to Rogan pointing out that pesticides and other poor agricultural practices can endanger cannabis consumers in states where it’s currently legal.
“All of this because it’s not federally legal,” Rogan added. “Because we can’t have sanctioned, licensed companies doing an ethical job of growing something that any responsible, law-abiding person should be able to consume.”
