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Dear Stoner: Are a candidate’s opinions on marijuana really that important anymore? You’d think people would care about other, more important things when going to vote.
Keisha
Dear Keisha: Based on how little we’ve heard candidates in the Democratic primary race talk about pot and how often they argue about health care, immigration and tax rates, it’s safe to say that cannabis isn’t a top priority. A big reason is that they largely agree on the issue, with Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg the only ones among the current (and former, if you count recent dropouts) candidates to not fully endorse cannabis legalization – and even they’re both on the record in support of decriminalization for cannabis possession and crime expungement.

Bernie Sanders speaks to a crowd of more than 11,000 on the floor of the Colorado Convention Center.
Evan Sem
The voice of the cannabis voter wasn’t a loud one during John Hickenlooper’s final years as Colorado governor, but it piped up again in 2018, when Jared Polis ran. Once a Democrat has to face President Donald Trump, whose comments and administrative actions around cannabis have been conflicting at best, we’ll hear more cannabis policy conversations at a national level.
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