Donald Trump has expressed his support for a ballot initiative that would legalize recreational marijuana use in Florida, where he lives.
"Whether people like it or not," the Republican presidential candidate said in his Truth Social platform, "it's going to happen," AFP reports.
Marijuana decriminalization is widely supported across the country. Three-quarters of Americans live in states where marijuana is legal for recreational and medical use or for medical use only.
Polls show that support is particularly strong among younger people, a demographic that has shifted significantly toward Trump's rival Kamala Harris since she became the Democratic presidential nominee.
The Florida initiative, which will be on the ballot in November when Americans vote for their next president, is opposed by Gov. Ron DeSantis and some other Republicans from the state.
"The proposed amendment would turn Florida into San Francisco or Chicago," DeSantis said earlier this summer, noting that his state already allows medical marijuana. "We need to keep our streets clean," he added.
Trump described his endorsement as a matter of fairness across state lines and the disproportionate impact an arrest can have on people's lives.
"Someone shouldn't be a criminal in Florida when it's legal in so many other states," Trump said in his post.
"We don't need to ruin lives & waste taxpayer dollars arresting elderly people with small amounts of it on them," he added.
At the same time, he called for the passage of laws against cannabis use in public places, "so we don't smell like marijuana everywhere we go, as is the case in many Democrat-run cities."
During his victorious 2016 presidential campaign, Trump took a stance of tolerance on the issue, repeatedly saying he would leave the matter to local authorities.
Once in the White House, he said almost nothing on the issue, but he did lend support to some of his first attorney general Jeff Sessions' hardline positions on law and order.
The previous U.S. administration, under Democratic President Barack Obama, followed a federal policy of tolerance.
But in 2018, Sessions rescinded that policy, giving local prosecutors more leeway to prosecute the cultivation, sale and possession of marijuana. Most of them didn't, however.
In May, the U.S. Department of Justice announced plans to reclassify marijuana as a less dangerous drug. | BGNES
