White House hopeful Jill Stein: Time to empty prisons of non-violent marijuana users

Speaking at Seattle's Hempfest last week, Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein voiced her support for marijuana legislation.

Stein, a long-time physician and teacher, said the first thing she would do as president would be to direct the Drug Enforcement Administration to declassify marijuana as a Schedule I substance, the most restrictive classification reserved for dangerous, addictive drugs with no medical value.

"Use science in the classification of substances," she said. "Because the minute science is used, marijuana, cannabis and hemp are off the list of scheduled substances. There is no scientific reason to schedule them."

Stein also called for non-violent marijuana users to be released from prison.

"We need to legalize cannabis, get the users out of jail, and start to treat substance abuse and addiction as a public health problem, not as a criminal act," she said.

Stein was nominated by the Green Party in July. She has promised to puruse a litany of progressive causes, from marijuana legalization and demilitarization, to a radical overhaul of the tax code and a crackdown on Wall Street. Stein will be joined on the ticket by vice presidential running mate Cheri Honkala, the National Coordinator for the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign.

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube on August 19 by AdamUnedited, below: