RFK Jr. urges marijuana legalization ‘to end addiction’

(NewsNation) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an independent 2024 presidential candidate, asserts the U.S. needs to “legalize pot to end addiction,” in a new campaign ad.

In the ad, which pulls clips from a C-SPAN interview, Kennedy described his plan to federally legalize marijuana and allocate tax revenue for substance misuse treatment and rehabilitation.

“What I’ve advocated is that we should legalize marijuana. We should have a federal tax on marijuana that is designated specifically for drug treatment and rehabilitation and I want to build, as part of my presidency, a series of renewal centers of detoxification, essentially, centers around this country to treat the rise in mental illness and PTSD and drug addiction that is debilitating our children,” he said in the ad.

Additionally, Kennedy called for reform to ensure that cannabis businesses can “bank their profit and their revenues,” rather than operate on a cash-only basis that “encourages more crime.”

He said if marijuana is taxed more “robustly,” that would enable the country to “pay for the addiction treatment for our children.”

Kennedy, the son of former Attorney General Robert Kennedy and nephew of President John F. Kennedy, has disclosed he battled addiction to other substances in his youth.

Though he’s expressed concerns about “the proliferation of stimulants and mind-altering substances,” he added that he believes in “personal freedoms” and considers the current policy of criminalizing and incarcerating people over drugs to be untenable.

President Joe Biden is also an advocate of marijuana legalization. Last month, Biden pardoned thousands of Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law, as his administration takes a dramatic step toward decriminalizing the drug and addressing charging practices that disproportionately impact people of color.

He’s called on governors to issue similar pardons for those convicted of state marijuana offenses, which reflect the vast majority of marijuana possession cases.

Biden, in a statement, said the move reflects his position that, “No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana.”

However, not everyone is a fan of marijuana.

Former President Donald Trump has asserted that marijuana does “significant damage”; however, he acknowledges that legalization is “pretty popular” among voters.

“I mean, you see the same studies. It’s not helping people,” Trump said. “I mean, studies are saying that it does damage. It does significant damage — and yet, from a voting standpoint, it’s a pretty popular thing,” he said during a May interview on Newsmax’s “Greg Kelly Reports.”

During a presidential campaign event in August, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, called marijuana “a real problem,” and warned that “drugs are killing this country.”

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, a 2024 Republican presidential candidate, said that marijuana legalization is “best decided” at the state level. During a May interview with WMUR-TV, she emphasized that she’s a “states’ rights person.”

“I think these types of decisions are best decided at the state level,” she said. “It’s where people can show the power of their voice. Some states will want to see it, and that allows them the right to do that. Some don’t want to see it, and that allows them that right.”

In 2014, Haley signed legislation allowing doctors to prescribe cannabidiol oil to patients suffering from severe epilepsy and for whom conventional therapies proved ineffective, according to Marijuana Moment.