Democratic White House contender Bernie Sanders may be staking out the stoner vote, suggesting in an online conversation that he supports the legalization of marijuana.
During a
Reddit question-and-answer session posted Tuesday, the Vermont independent U.S. senator said, "Colorado has led the effort toward legalizing marijuana and I'm going to watch very closely to see the pluses and minuses of what they have done."
"I will have more to say about this issue within the coming months," he added.
Colorado was one of the first states to legalize both recreational and medical marijuana.
Sanders also pointed to his time as mayor of Burlington, Vermont, when "I can tell you very few people were arrested for smoking marijuana. Our police had more important things to do."
He then declared that he supported efforts to
decriminalize small amounts of pot in his own state, and added that he backed the use of medical marijuana — but stopped short of a full endorsement of legalizing weed across the country.
"It’s really exciting to have Sen. Sanders express unequivocal support for decriminalization and medical marijuana," gushed Tom Angell, chairman of the Marijuana Majority, according to
The Daily Caller.
"And reading between the lines, it seems to me like he’s getting ready to endorse full legalization soon. Having his voice in the presidential race is going to force all the other candidates to also address the issue and will make it much more likely they’ll take favorable positions as well."
The Independent Journal Review reports that its analysis of presidential candidates last February found Sanders smoked some weed in the 1960s, confessing: "My hair was long, but not long for the times. I smoked marijuana, but was never part of the drug culture. That wasn’t me."
The self-described socialist
who announced his presidential intentions last month could use all the votes he can get: He currently trails Clinton in the polls by over 50 percentage points,
Real Clear Politics reports.
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