Hillary Clinton sides with Big Pharma, against marijuana

Tuesday, February 09, 2016 by: J. D. Heyes
Tags: Hillary Clinton, marijuana legalization, Big Pharma

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(NaturalNews) Well, once again, as in 2008, the Iowa Caucus was not the coronation that she and her supporters thought it was going to be.

Nominal Democrat presidential "frontrunner" Hillary Clinton barely made it out of the nation's first caucus as the technical victor (though the campaign her main opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has contested those results), leaving many to wonder if she's got the mojo in 2016 that she lacked in 2008 when she was younger and less scandal-plagued in her loss to a relatively unknown U.S. senator from Illinois.

Time will tell, of course, and to be fair, Clinton is expected to do better down South. But her positions on a number of issues continue to run afoul of those held by the same young Millennial voters she, at 68 years old, is trying to woo.

One of those positions has as much to do with her loyalty to a class of donors than it does to any real conviction, and that's her deference to Big Pharma over the opinions and views of a majority of both young people and medical experts when it comes to marijuana use. Despite her often pathetic attempts to court the young and hip in America, when all is said and done, she's much more comfortable cashing Big Pharma donor checks.

As reported by the website Marijuana Politics, fully 77 percent of young Democrats say they believe recreational use of pot should be legal, but "Hillary Clinton is unwilling to support meaningful marijuana reforms." Further, the site notes, "She's opposed decriminalizing marijuana during her previous presidential run and has given little indication that she changed her position on the issue since."

Big Pharma, Big Donor

The Pew Research Center also found that 63 percent of Republican Millennials favor legalizing marijuana too. Approval among the Gen X and Baby Boomer generations of both Democrats and Republicans are significantly lower, though in each case more Democrats than Republicans favor legalization.

Clinton was asked during a CNN town hall in June 2014 what her thoughts were on legalizing recreational pot use. She said:

On recreational [use], you know, states are the laboratories of democracy. We have at least two states that are experimenting with that right now. I want to wait and see what the evidence is.

When asked about the utility of medical marijuana, she said:

I don't think we've done enough research yet. Although I think for people who are in extreme medical conditions and have anecdotal evidence that it works, there should be availability under appropriate circumstances. But I do think we need more research, because we don't know how it interacts with other drugs. There's a lot we don't know.

Fast-forward to Clinton's current campaign. As noted by Reason magazine, which supports legalization, the candidate said at an event in South Carolina that she supports reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule II drug, which would put it on par with cocaine and methamphetamine.

Not much consolation there. That said, Clinton's dope views are pretty much in line with a key ally – Big Pharma, notes Marijuana Politics.

Hillary – Big Pharma's abuela

Though she has called the pharmaceutical industry one of her greatest "enemies," her campaign has actually accepted more money from drug companies than any other candidate in this election cycle. They must know something we don't, because these companies wouldn't support someone who was truly an "enemy."

Marijuana Politics reports further:

Pharmaceutical manufacturers donated more than $340,000 for her 2008 presidential bid – and in just the first six months of her 2016 campaign, Clinton has received over $160,000 from drug companies. To top it off, Big Pharma giants Pfizer and Proctor & Gamble each have donated between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation. And that's likely just the tip of the iceberg, as Clinton enjoys the support of numerous Super PACs whose finances are notoriously obscure.

No, Clinton might be attempting to appeal to younger Democrat voters, but on an issue where they overwhelmingly disagree, that is likely to cost her support.

Sanders, meanwhile, backs decriminalizing pot, while GOP front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have said the decision should be left up to individual states.

Sources:

CNN.com

PewResearch.org

Fool.com

MarijuanaPolitics.com