Presidential Candidates' Drug Policy Issue Choices from Vote-Smart Each election cycle, Project Vote-Smart provides in-depth coverage of candidates, including distributing a questionaire for them to fill out on a wide variety of issues. Below, I have combined the drug policy answers of two Republican and seven Democratic candidates for President in a single chart for comparison purposes. (If you're interested in other Presidential candidates' responses, or these candidates' responses in other areas, check here.) Note that George Bush, Howard Dean, and John Kerry refused or neglected to complete the NPAT questionaire (available here as a pdf). They should be questioned on this fact. Drug Policy Questions Blake Ashby George Bush Wesley Clark Howard Dean John Edwards John Kerry Dennis Kucinich Joe Lieberman Al Sharpton a) Support mandatory jail sentences for selling illegal drugs.   ?   ?   ?       b) Expand federally sponsored drug education and drug treatment programs. X ? X ?   ? X X X c) Decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana. X ?   ?   ? X   X d) Allow doctors to prescribe marijuana to their patients for medicinal purposes. X ?   ?   ? X X X e) Increase border security to stop the flow of illegal drugs into the U.S.   ? X ?   ?       f) Eliminate federal funding for programs associated with the "war on drugs."   ?   ?   ? X     g) Other or expanded principles *       **     ***   * Blake Ashby: 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. For Americans suffering from debilitating diseases such as cancer, glaucoma, or HIV/AIDS, this is simply a basic form of compassion. ** John Edwards: I support keeping drugs out of the United States and vigorous prosecution of drug sales. I also support greater funding for drug treatment and alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenders such as drug courts. *** Joe Lieberman: Regarding (a), I do support mandatory jail sentences for certain examples of selling illegal drugs. Note the responses of Dennis Kucinich (my endorsement for the Democratic nomination) and Blake Ashby (my endorsement for the Republican nomination). You can also check out my earlier posting with the candidate grades from Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana, plus NORML.