Clinton Says She Supports Reclassifying Marijuana to Encourage Research

Hillary Clinton says she now supports reclassifying marijuana to make it easier to conduct research on medical marijuana, according to NPR.

“A lot more states have passed medical marijuana than have legalized marijuana, so we’ve got two different experiences or even experiments going on right now,” she said. “The problem with medical marijuana is that there’s a lot of anecdotal evidence about how well it works for certain conditions, but we haven’t done any research.”

Clinton noted marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, as are heroin, LSD and Ecstasy. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, Schedule I drugs have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” If marijuana were reclassified as a Schedule II drug, it would allow for more legal research, the article notes.

“Researchers at universities, at the National Institutes of Health, could start researching what’s the best way to use it, how much of a dose does somebody need, how does it interact with other medications,” she said.

At a town hall meeting in South Carolina, Clinton noted she does not support legalizing marijuana, but added she thinks the federal government should monitor states where it has become legal, in order to learn more.

Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders filed a bill in the U.S. Senate that would allow states to decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana. The bill would also decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.

In a statement, Sanders said, “If we are serious about criminal justice reform and preventing many thousands of lives from being impacted because of criminal convictions for marijuana possession, we must remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act and allow states the right to go forward, if they choose, to legalize marijuana without federal legal impediments.”