Nancy Pelosi declares support for California’s legal weed ballot initiative

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Friday told the Los Angeles Times she will vote yes on California’s Proposition 64, the state’s recreational marijuana measure expected to pass next Tuesday.

“I will vote for it, but I have not made a public statement about it until right this very second,” Pelosi said.

The list of politicians who publicly support legalization expanded in recent years, but the house minority leader has long-supported sensible drug policies. In 2005, she co-sponsored the States’ Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, calling it “the compassionate way to go”:

"I've been a long-standing advocate for allowing states to make medical marijuana available to patients under a doctor's recommendation to alleviate painful suffering. A doctor's prescription is needed for a substance that is not otherwise legal. Doctors write prescriptions every day for that purpose, and they should be able to do so if their states allow it, in the case of medical marijuana."

California is one of several states with legal pot on the ballot; Arizona, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada also have initiatives that would legalize recreational marijuana.