FAIRFAX, Va. — While speaking to college students on Wednesday night, Sen. Bernie Sanders called for the legalization and regulation of marijuana, so that people in possession of the substance would be treated no differently than people smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol.
“In the United States we have 2.2 million people in jail today, more than any other country. And we’re spending about $80 billion a year to lock people up. We need major changes in our criminal justice system, including changes in drug laws,” the Democratic presidential candidate said while speaking at a gathering of college students at George Mason University.
He added, “Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. That’s wrong. That has got to change.”
Under the senator’s proposal, states would regulate marijuana in the same way that they regulate alcohol and tobacco. But Sanders would allow law enforcement officers to arrest drug dealers for trafficking marijuana sales outside of the federally regulated system.
The proposal aims to lower the number of marijuana-related arrests nationally and in turn, ease the criminal justice system. There were more than 8 million marijuana-related arrests between 2001-2010, and almost 9 in 10 were for possession, Sanders claimed. Additionally, state government spent $3.6 billion enforcing marijuana possession laws in 2010 alone. The Democratic socialist claimed that his plan to tax and regulate marijuana like alcohol will also help the United States realize racial justice.
“There is a racial component to this situation,” Sanders said. “Although the same proportions as black and white persons use marijuana, a black person is four times as likely to get arrested as a white person.”
After addressing his newly released platform on decriminalizing marijuana, Sanders went on to talk about the main tenets of his platform: racial justice, free higher education, closing the gender wage gap and getting money out of politics. Sanders packed the large auditorium with GMU students, some of whom waited in the rain for up to three hours to see the Democratic primary candidate speak. The forum was broadcast nationwide on hundreds of college campuses.
