John Hickenlooper, the former Colorado governor now vying to be the Democratic 2020 presidential nominee, believes the federal government should have a minimal role in the marijuana trade.
“I would not ask the federal government to legalize it for everyone, but I think where states do legalize marijuana, with the voters or through the general assembly, the federal government should get out of the way,” Hickenlooper said during a CNN town hall in Atlanta, Ga.
Hickenlooper, who is also the former mayor of Denver, was initially against efforts to legalize medical and recreational pot use in his home state. But on Wednesday, he suggested federal regulation on how crops are grown and national investment in medical marijuana research.
“Let’s make this a real experiment through collaboration between the federal government and the states,” he said.
[Related: Florida rolls with smokable medical marijuana, ending yearslong debate]
Hickenlooper, in response to audience questions, defended his stances against single-payer healthcare and the death penalty. He also said President Trump should be “ashamed” of himself for not acknowledging a rise in white nationalism after 50 Muslims were killed last week at two mosques in New Zealand.
The presidential hopeful additionally used the platform to address his struggle being a politician who suffers from face blindness.
“I think you learn to compensate for these things,” Hickenlooper said. “I think that, in a funny way, sometimes you learn to compensate for these things. I just learned that if someone came to me and it looked to me that they knew me and they smiled, I’d smile right back. And I’d sometimes get accused of being a little over-friendly, right? But it’s better to be over-friendly in life, right, than to be someone who’s maybe a little doubtful or looking a little doubtful when you meet someone new.”
[Also read: Was Kamala Harris getting stoned while serving as an anti-pot prosecutor?]
