Claire McCaskill Supports Medical Marijuana in Missouri
ST. LOUIS – U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) is now a supporter of medical marijuana. McCaskill told an audience at a town hall meeting at Harris-Stowe State University this week that she was supporting medical marijuana as well as racism and justice reform.
McCaskill said that she may even support recreational marijuana while citing her work as a Kansas City prosecutor using a program called drug courts. The senator had previously been an opponent of marijuana.
She told audience members that she faced resistance form law enforcement officials, saying “By the way, I got a lot of pushback. The police officers that did drug crimes, they said, ‘Claire, let me get this straight. We’re gonna go in a drug house and bust these guys, and then you’re gonna give them a bus pass and job training?’ I said, ‘That’s exactly right.’” The senator made the comments as part of her campaign to reach out to minority communities, adding that the program was a success with the police department drug task force eventually agreeing with her.
The former prosecutor said that she is also committed to reforming the criminal justice system that stereotypes people of color and fight against racial bias by the police. “In terms of police bias and our police department, I think the most important ingredient is trust, and a lot of that has to do with community policing,” she said.
McCaskill went on to say that the police can build trust in the community by having officers assigned to a certain neighborhood where the residents can get to know them, adding that people will be more inclined to come forward when the are a witness to a crime. The senator said that once there is trust with police officers who want to do the right thing, the “bad apples are squeezed out of the system.”
