Bernie Sanders to Kimmel: ‘We Need to End the War on Drugs’
Bernie Sanders called for an end to the destructive war on drugs and said he was “not unfavorably disposed to moving towards the legalization of marijuana” on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Wednesday.
The Democratic presidential hopeful delighted the crowd with a devilish grin after host Jimmy Kimmel bluntly asked him about his stance on marijuana — but he quickly got down to business.
“We have more people in jail today than any other country on Earth,” Sanders said. “We have large numbers of lives that have been destroyed because of this war on drugs and because people were caught smoking marijuana and so forth. I think we have to end the war on drugs.”
With Sanders then noting his openness to legalizing marijuana, Kimmel offered a policy suggestion tied to the candidate’s idea to buckle predatory payday loan services by offering modest banking through the postal service: “Maybe we have postal carriers deliver marijuana to people?” Kimmel joked.
“That will get rid of the federal deficit pretty quickly, won’t it?” Sanders cracked back.
Sanders was at home on Kimmel, which is taping from his native borough of Brooklyn this week. The junior senator from Vermont also spoke about making college tuition free and why he’s electable, while also answering the question on everyone’s mind: What did he think of Larry David’s impression of him on Saturday Night Live?