Here's What 6 Presidential Candidates Think About Marijuana In 2016

With the presidential election in the news almost as much as marijuana legalization, we thought it was high time to address both topics.

Being an informed voter is important, so here's how the front runners for the 2016 presidential election feel about marijuana legalization:

Hillary Clinton

Although Clinton believes that marijuana should be reclassified as a schedule 2 drug, she is apprehensive to support legalization outright.

She frequently calls for more research to be done, most recently stating, “We should be learning what works and doesn't work,” when a medical marijuana patient asked her about legal medical marijuana during the New Hampshire town hall.

Many are saying that because there is sufficient evidence to support legalization, she is using this answer as a way to dodge the question.

Clinton has said in the past that she supports legalized medical marijuana, as well as states experimenting with recreational legalization, but still hasn't fully endorsed the marijuana platform.

Critics claim that this unwillingness to commit either way on this issue is putting her out of touch with Millennial voters.

Bernie Sanders

Bernie Sanders cares about your weed.

Back in November, Sanders introduced a bill that would allow states to decide whether or not they wanted to legalize recreational marijuana, and decriminalizing it on a federal level.

Sanders and his supporters claim that this bill would allow growers and dispensaries in the states access to banks, as it would no longer be federally illegal.

Sanders says:

The state wants to go forward, they should be able to go forward without legal impediments from the federal government, and that's what this legislation is about.

“Colorado wants to legalize marijuana, it's their decision. If Alabama does not want to legalize marijuana, that's their decision. But if a state wants to go forward, it should be able to do so without impediments from the federal government, which now prevent stores that sell marijuana from using banks, because that's in violation of federal law.”

Donald Trump

Trump has taken a few interesting stances on marijuana throughout the years, beginning in 1990, when he called to legalize all drugs.

However, at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump had changed his tune about legalizing weed. He said, “I think it's bad, and I feel strongly about that. They've got a lot of problems going on right now in Colorado, some big problems.”

Trump says he's never tried marijuana. Regardless of how Trump feels about weed, we can all rest assured that legal marijuana sales in 2015 were $5.4 billion, which is more than Trump's net worth.

Jeb Bush

While this Bush sheepishly admitted to smoking weed roughly 40 years ago, it seems all of his high-flying days are behind him.

He opposed even medical marijuana on the Florida ballot, saying, “What goes on in Colorado, as far as I'm concerned, that should be a state decision. But if you look at the problem of drugs in society today, it's a serious problem. It is appropriate for the government to play a consistent role to be able to provide more treatment, more prevention. In Florida, there are drug courts to give people a second chance. Medical marijuana on the ballot was opened up, there was a huge loophole, it was the first step. As a citizen of Florida, I voted no.”

We're going to go out on a limb, here, and say that means he's against pretty much all legalization.

Ted Cruz

While Ted Cruz does not support legalizing marijuana, at least he does acknowledge that it should be left to individual state's discretion.

“When it comes to a question of legalizing marijuana, I don't support legalizing marijuana. If it were on the ballot in the state of Texas, I would vote no. But I also believe that's a legitimate question for the states to make a determination. I think it is appropriate for the federal government to recognize that the citizens of those states have made that decision, and one of the benefits of it, you know, using Brandeis' terms of laboratories of democracy, is we can now watch and see what happens in Colorado and Washington State.”

Oh, and he too smoked weed when he was young.

Marco Rubio

Rubio doesn't oppose medical marijuana, as long as it is FDA approved.

He does, however, think we would be better off without recreational weed, and his campaign spokesperson stated that Rubio felt it “is a bad idea, and that the states that are doing it may well come to regret it. Of course, states can make decisions about what laws they wish to apply within their own borders.”

He also doesn't “believe we should be in the business of legalizing additional intoxicants in this country for the primary reason that when you legalize something, what you're sending a message to young people is it can't be that bad, because if it was that bad, it wouldn't be legal.”

This article was originally published on Stoned Girls.