Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Saturday he would support the adoption of an amendment that would legalize recreational cannabis use for adults in his home state of Florida.
In November, simultaneously with the presidential elections, a constitutional referendum on this issue is scheduled to be held in Florida.
In the United States, it is common practice for voters to vote simultaneously in national elections and on many local issues. The issue is particularly sensitive for young voters, with a clear majority of people under 50 who want to legalize recreational cannabis use.
“In Florida, as in so many other states that have already approved it, a personal amount of marijuana will be permitted for adults,” Donald Trump wrote on his Truth social media account.
“No one should be classified as a criminal in Florida for what is legal in so many other states. We do not need to waste lives and taxpayer dollars arresting adults for possession of personal amounts of marijuana,” he added.
However, he called for laws against public consumption of cannabis “so that it doesn’t smell like cannabis everywhere, like in so many cities run by Democrats.”
During his victorious 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump had taken a tolerant stance on the issue, repeatedly saying he would let local authorities manage the issue.
But later, at the White House, he was more discreet on the issue, and supported his attorney general, Jeff Sessions’, hard-line stance on policing.
In 2018, Sessions repealed the lenient federal policy toward legalizing recreational cannabis introduced by the Democratic administration of Barack Obama, giving prosecutors free rein to pursue regular cannabis users as they saw fit. But most had refrained from doing so.
Although three-quarters of Americans now live in a state where cannabis is legal, legalization has not yet taken place at the federal level in the US. In May, the Justice Department under outgoing Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration officially released its recommendation to reclassify cannabis as a less dangerous drug than it currently is.
Source: rr.sapo.pt
