President Obama gave qualified support for marijuana decriminalization in an interview for CNN’s documentary “Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution,” hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Gupta asked the president to give his opinion of the Carers Act of 2015, a proposed Senate bill that would grant federal permission for medical marijuana programs in states that have legalized them. It would also reclassify marijuana’s status under federal law to a Schedule II drug and increase research into marijuana’s potential benefits. Obama responded:
“You know, I think I’d have to take a look at the details, but I’m on record as saying that not only do I think carefully prescribed medical use of marijuana may in fact be appropriate and we should follow the science as opposed to ideology on this issue, but I’m also on record as saying that the more we treat some of these issues related to drug abuse from a public-health model and not just from an incarceration model, the better off we’re going to be.”
Dr. Gupta spoke with two of the bill’s co-sponsors, Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., and said that they were both “very optimistic about it. According to Gupta, “Cory Booker’s exact language is ‘We’re gonna get it done.'”
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Photo Credit: Nick Knupffer