With the Iowa Caucus just hours away, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has promised legal marijuana in all the 50 states if he is elected president in the November polls. He was speaking at a rally in Cedar Rapids:
“We will end the destructive war on drugs. On my first day in office through executive order, we will legalize marijuana in every state in this country.”
Sanders insisted it would be crucial for his administration to end cannabis prohibition in a manner that helps all the communities harmed by the drug war’s enforcement. He added:
“We will move forward to expunge the records of those arrested for possession of marijuana. And we will make certain that a handful of corporations does not control the legalized marijuana industry but that those people in the African-American community, the Latino community, the Native American community.”
It is not yet clear whether Sanders will have a chance to run for the presidency on a Democratic party ticket. Also, it is far from clear that if he is elected as president would accomplish unilateral federal legalization of marijuana. He might not even have the capability of ending prohibition in all states or get that done within hours after being sworn in..
Regulators
According to the law, the executive arm has no authority under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) to alter or reclassify cannabis without any further action from Congress. However, the details of the entire process comprise of steps that feature the attorney general together with the health and human services secretary, all of whom are unlikely to be installed on the first day in the office for Sanders.
The current law also means that the international drug treaties may complicate any move by an administration to repeal and deschedule marijuana from the CSA entirely. In the case of enacting the legalization in each state, a president cannot force the repeal of all local criminalization laws.
Sanders also mentioned that he intends to swiftly legalize marijuana and take other executive actions in early 2021 if he wins the presidency. In 2015, he became the first major presidential candidate to back marijuana legalization.
Though in 2020 Sanders has pledged to accomplish federal legalization of cannabis in 100 days, he has not gone as far as other candidates seeking to decriminalize other drugs. Though the senator supports ‘ending the war on drugs,’ he said that he has not yet achieved what he wants in the case of decriminalizing other substances.
