Jill Stein on Drugs Green Party presidential nominee; Former Challenger for MA Governor

Replace drug prohibition with harm reduction

• End the failed war on drugs. Replace drug prohibition with harm reduction. Legalize marijuana/hemp. Treat substance abuse as a health problem, not a criminal offense.
• Release nonviolent drug offenders from prison, removing such offenses from their records, and provide them with both pre- and post-release support.

The war on drugs is racist

We need to build coalitions to link racial justice to climate justice to immigrant justice and to peace and democracy.

End the racist war on drugs and school-to-prison pipeline

• Health care as a human right, not a means tested entitlement like Medicare, not a subsidized profit center for predatory insurance like Obamacare, but a Medicare for All system to provide quality care for all while saving trillions by streamlining the massive health insurance bureaucracy;
• Quality free public education as a human right, and an end to runaway school privatizations and closings, to high stakes testing, and student loan debt.
• A welcoming path to citizenship for immigrant residents, and an end to predatory trade deals and political interventions that created the surge of immigration to start with
• An end to the racist war on drugs and school to prison pipeline. And a end to the militarized police, surveillance and prison state, and radical reduction of America's prison population
• An end to Wall Street bail outs and "too big to fail' banks

Transform from criminal drug system to public health system

STEIN: We would do something revolutionary. We would actually use science to determine which drugs are dangerous and which ones are not. That means right off the bat marijuana and hemp are removed from the list of dangerous substances because these are not dangerous substances in relation to other unregulated substances including nicotine and alcohol. We would start with the legalization of marijuana and transform the drug system from a criminal system to a public health system. If people have issues of dependency which would apply to legal drugs as well as illegal drugs including alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and heavier drugs they need to be treated within the public health system. These are psychological problems not criminal problems. If you don't treat the problem it only aggravates it and compounds it with issues of public safety and criminal violence that are associated with the illegal drug culture.

I support legalization of marijuana

I also support legalization of marijuana, ending war, and other bread-and-butter concerns for young people. This is a constituency that is just itching for a platform of this sort.

Marijuana is dangerous because it's illegal, not vice-versa

A: We wouldn't remove all laws against all drug use. Marijuana is a drug that is dangerous because it's illegal. It isn't illegal because it's dangerous. There are drugs in use that are far more harmful than marijuana--such as alcohol. Legalize marijuana and the dangers go away. Regulate it so that children can't buy it on the street corner.

Q: What about other drugs?

A: Drug use is a public health issue, not a criminal or moral issue. It should not be dealt with in the criminal justice system, but primarily as a public health issue.

Bring marijuana sales under a legal regulatory framework

It's time to get rid of the black market and bring marijuana sales under a legal regulatory framework. In this way, we can staunch the flow of money to illegal drug networks, generate new funds for our communities, improve public safety, and create new jobs in growing hemp for food and fiber.

As Governor I will appoint a Cannabis Reform Commission to investigate the best way to bring marijuana sales under the new regulatory framework.