Before suspending his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination at the Iowa Caucus and then endorsing Donald Trump, Vivek Ramaswamy talked about marijuana at a virtual town hall.
Asked why medical marijuana is not legal at the federal level, Ramaswamy responded: "I think there's a lot of state-level patchwork that's been happening in this country. At the federal level, you've got got the federal government and everything has to go through Congress."
Ramaswamy then connected cannabis to military veterans. "I believe so many veterans that are suffering from PTSD are turning to suicide or fentanyl or worse. What I believe is that Schedule 1 drugs should be descheduled for veterans with PTSD to enable them to get that as medical care through the VA—far better than fentanyl or suicide or other places they're turning."
His comments on descheduling marijuana come on the heels of the Department of Health and Human Services publicly recommending to the DEA to reschedule cannabis based on its "accepted medical use."
"That's something that I will be able to do as the next president of the United States and that's where my focus is, in at least bringing some sensibility into the way that we're applying the federal drug scheduling," he said before dropping out of the race. "Veterans with PTSD do deserve greater access to medical choice through the VA system, and that's what I stand for."
See Also: GOP Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy Wants Legal Psychedelics And Cannabis For PTSD In New Veterans Plan
Ramaswamy previously expressed support for cannabis reform on the federal level. Last August he told Bill Maher that "it's a joke" that cannabis is not legal nationwide.
Regarding his campaign suspension, Ramaswamy posted the following note on X:
Read Next: Donald Trump, Nikki Haley And Ron DeSantis: Where Do They Stand On Cannabis Legalization These Days?
Photo: Benzinga edit with images by RDNE Stock project via Pexels, Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons and OpenClipart-Vectors on Pixabay
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