Sunday, January 18, 2004

Voting and Candidate Grades With the Iowa Caucuses coming up, it's a good time to review the candidates again. Today, I'd like to remind you about the Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana Voter Guide. The Granite Staters have gone through voting records (and other actions) and public speeches regarding medical marijuana and graded each of the candidates. Go to their site for detailed analysis, but here are the quick current grades. (Remember this is specifically for medical marijuana and may not reflect other drug war issues) Dennis Kucinich A+ Carol Moseley Braun*    A Al Sharpton A John Kerry A- Wesley K. Clark B+ Howard Dean D- Bob Graham* D- George W. Bush F John Edwards F Dick Gephardt F Joseph Lieberman F *dropped out Drug WarRant has already endorsed Dennis Kucinich for the Democratic nomination for President. Drug WarRant's endorsement for the Republican nomination - Blake Ashby - is not included in the Granite Staters' grade book, but his grade would be good: If a doctor believes that his or her patient would benefit from the responsible use of medicinal marijuana, then that doctor should be allowed to legally prescribe it. After I endorsed Blake, I got a nice note from him, which included: Thanks for the positive mention for my campaign.  This started because I was so mad, but is slowly evolving into a protest campaign. If you're a Republican, be sure to write in Blake Ashby's name in your primary. In our Guest Rants, Gregg Brown adds some additional comment on voting and hemp, including some startlingly positive statements from Central Illinois Congressional candidates on both sides of the aisle -- Republican Tim Johnson and Democrat David Gill. Update: NORML has its own Presidential Scorecard which includes their up/down/neutral ratings on decriminalization, medical marijuana, and the HEA provision. 4:12:27 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []