Bernie Sanders Speaks Out Against The Death Penalty After Hillary Clinton

“All that legislation says, is that if a state chooses to legalize marijuana, that state should be able to go forward without legal impediments from the federal government”, he said.

Bernie Sanders has said he’s proud of his record on women’s issues, but his rivals in the Hillary Clinton camp aren’t so sure he’s the rock solid feminist he claims to be. O’Malley wants to reclassify marijuana under federal drug laws and make it a so-called Schedule 2 drug, similar to cocaine.

Sanders’ plan essentially leaves drug policy to the states.

Sanders continued, “In my view, states should have the right to regulate marijuana the same way that state and local laws now govern the sale of alcohol and tobacco”. But perhaps most importantly, the criminalization of marijuana is part of a deeper system of racial injustice that has to be dismantled one piece at a time.

During the meeting Sanders touched upon the major reforms he’d like to see, if he is elected into office. “All over the industrialized world now, countries are saying, “let us put an end to state murder, let us stop capital punishment”, Sanders said in opposition to the 1991 Violent Crime Prevention Act. Seeing a political opportunity, Clinton took umbrage with Sanders’s remarks at Saturday’s dinner. Currently, legal marijuana businesses have trouble accessing banking services because of federal regulations.

Although a number of states have medical marijuana laws, and both Washington and Colorado have totally legalized the substance, it seems likely that many states would enact their own much stricter controls. Recent polls have suggested Sanders was in second place in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Last week, the U.S. Federal Reserve asked a judge in Denver to dismiss a lawsuit from Fourth Corner Credit Union, a credit union set up past year seeking bank charter for Colorado’s marijuana businesses.

Sanders’ proposal was cheered by legalization proponents.

The anti-drug group Smart alternatives to marijuana has previously given Sanders a D-minus on marijuana policy.

At the CNN presidential debate in Las Vegas earlier this month Sanders said it is time to “think through this war on drugs” and hinted he was open to states taking the next step, legalization.