Shenna Bellows, ME-Sen candidate.
ThinkProgress has an interview up with ME-Sen candidate Shenna Bellows, discussing her open support for marijuana legalization.
Bellows explained that she envisions herself as a Senate leader on marijuana reform.
“Right now on the Senate side, there doesn’t seem to be a leader who has the courage to move that forward,” Bellows said. “I would be that leader.”
Shenna Bellows, ME-Sen candidate.
Bellows is no newcomer to the reform movement. As Executive Director of the ACLU Maine, she coordinated with the Marijuana Policy Project to help win
Portland, Maine's local referendum to legalize recreational use of marijuana last fall.
Even so, this is a bold move for a US Senate candidate. As the ThinkProgress story notes,
"[N]o senator seems to have explicitly supported federal marijuana legalization, although some including Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Booker have at least spoken out against the current prohibition regime. Although several marijuana reform bills have been proposed in the House, none have been proposed in the Senate."
Given such a cautious attitude in the Senate, why would a candidate choose to make marijuana legalization a campaign issue?
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