California Marijuana Legalization: Is Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi In Favor Legalizing Recreational Drugs?

California’s Proposition 64 will get a “yes” vote from Nancy Pelosi when she takes to the polls on Election Day. The House Minority Leader told the Los Angeles Times on Friday that she is in favor of the state’s legal recreational marijuana initiative, which was her first public statement in support of California's latest proposed cannabis law.

The state was the first to approve medical marijuana for patients back in 1996, and if Prop. 64 gets the majority of votes on Tuesday, then Pelosi and every other Californian 21 and older would be able to legally smoke it.

Pelosi, who is currently the highest-ranking elected official of the Democratic and Republican parties, has generally kept quiet about her thoughts on marijuana legalization. She has endorsed several of the other 17 initiatives on the California ballot including the state’s measure to repeal the death penalty (Proposition 62), a measure that aims to raise tobacco taxes by $2 per pack (Proposition 56), the borrowing of $9 billion in school bonds (Proposition 51), and a ban allocating funds away from Medi-Cal, California’s state generated health care coverage program (Proposition 52).

Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada most likely won’t be casting a vote in favor Question 2, the legalized recreational marijuana measure that will be on his home state's ballot. Back in August, the Senate Minority leader said he “wouldn't vote” for legalized cannabis, because he felt that it was an issue that needed to be looked at “quite a bit longer.”

High-profile politicians in other states that will be voting for recreational marijuana legalization have also advocated against the ballot measures, including Massachusetts’ Republican Governor Charlie Baker, who suggested Question 4’s legalized recreational cannabis law could lead the state to an epidemic worse than its current opioid abuse problem.

Gov. Paul LePage, a Maine Republican, also suggested the state’s Question 1 marijuana measure, which would allow adults 21 and older to use marijuana as they please, would be “deadly” for the state.