Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren said she supports legalizing medical marijuana during a radio interview with Boston’s WTKK-FM Monday. In answering a question about the Massachusetts ballot initiative, she recalled sitting with her father on his death bed, when “there was some discussion” about whether marijuana would have helped:
You know, I held my father’s hand while he died of cancer, and it’s really painful when you do something like that up close and personal. My mother was already gone and I was very very close to my father. And it puts me in a position of saying, if there’s something a physician can prescribe that can help someone who’s suffering, I’m in favor of that. Now, I want to make sure they’ve got the right restrictions. It should be like any other prescription drug. That there’s careful control over it. But I think it’s really hard to watch somebody suffer that you love.
Warren’s statement comes as public support for decriminalizing marijuana is growing. A poll in May found that 56 percent of Americans now support legalizing marijuana and regulating it like states regulate alcohol and tobacco. In Massachusetts, a more recent poll found 59 percent of voters support legalizing marijuana specifically for medical use.
Should Massachusetts voters approve the measure on the November ballot to legalize medical marijuana in the state, Massachusetts will join 17 other states and the District of Columbia, which already have some statute in place decriminalizing medical marijuana. In spite of this growing movement among the states, federal officials are continuing to crack down on dispensaries, enforcing federal law even where state laws allow those dispensaries.
Arkansas and Montana will also hold ballot initiatives on medical marijuana this year, and Colorado, Washington and Oregon will consider measures to decriminalize marijuana for both medical and recreational uses. An initiative to legalize medical marijuana in North Dakota was blocked by the Secretary of State, and the North Dakota Supreme Court recently upheld that move.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy