Rand Paul (Drug Policy)

Paul's Drug Policy (section page)

Advocate of more rehabilitation and less incarceration

• Apply the 10th Amendment to allow states to make marijuana legal
• Bans on marijuana discriminate against lower income levels
• Higher levels of incarceration exist among poor children than wealthy children
• In addition to ending the over-criminalization of marijuana, Paul has risen awareness of another important issue among drug-related incarcerations - the unintentional racial outcome of the war on drugs
  • "Even though whites used drugs at the same rate as black kids, the prisons are full of black kids and brown kids. There are Republicans trying to correct this injustice." (OTI - DP)
• Supports community treatment rather than federal anti-drug programs

Paul believes we should:

• Legalize medical marijuana
• Exclude industrial hemp from definition of marijuana
• Exempt industrial hemp from marijuana laws
• Deal with drug abuse on the state level (not a federally pressing issue)

(OTI - DP)