Marijuana policy has reared its head in yet another gubernatorial race this election cycle, with the Republican South Carolina incumbent attempting to dissuade voters from electing his Democratic opponent because he supports marijuana legalization.<\/p>\n
And Joe Cunningham, a former Democratic congressman, is welcoming the attention to his popular, and increasingly bipartisan, stance of cannabis reform.<\/p>\n
Gov. Henry McMaster\u2019s (R) campaign released an ad that attacks the Democratic nominee as a \u201cfrat boy,\u201d playing a clip of him cracking open a can on beer on the U.S. House floor in late 2020 as a gesture calling for bipartisanship.<\/p>\n
\n(Shortly after this story was first published, the McMaster campaign made the YouTube video of their ad private, and then later reposted it. In case the ad is taken down again, an archived version can still be seen here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n The narrator then says \u201cJoe loves weed and voted against the police\u201d as a smokey filter is added to a video of him, before suggesting that he lost his seat for voting in step with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D) on a majority of legislation.<\/p>\n For what it\u2019s worth, Cunningham was unseated in his congressional reelection race by now-Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who strongly supports cannabis legalization and introduced a bill to end prohibition last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cunningham responded to the governor\u2019s ad by thanking him for \u201cpushing my incredibly popular plan to legalize marijuana in his new TV ad.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019d like to thank @henrymcmaster<\/a> for pushing my incredibly popular plan to legalize marijuana in his new TV ad. Since the governor clearly has no new ideas of his own to share, it’s nice he decided to spend some of his money on mine. Please RT and share!https:\/\/t.co\/624vv3S3S7<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Cunningham (@JoeCunninghamSC) August 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cSince the governor clearly has no new ideas of his own to share, it\u2019s nice he decided to spend some of his money on mine,\u201d he said, adding that his opponent\u2019s campaign mischaracterized his position on law enforcement and questioning McMaster\u2019s own college fraternity affiliations.<\/p>\n Also, I was never in a fraternity and I doubt Governor McMaster wants to talk about his fraternity days. I wouldn\u2019t want to be invited to his kind of frat party. pic.twitter.com\/vlvZ8C5Fwm<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Cunningham (@JoeCunninghamSC) August 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n A statement from the Cunningham campaign said that \u201cHenry McMaster is so out of touch with the people of South Carolina that he actually thinks highlighting Joe\u2019s support for marijuana legalization in an ad is a bad thing.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMcMaster wants to control your life, probably because he can\u2019t seem to control anything else in South Carolina,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n The McMaster ad isn\u2019t the first time that Cunningham has faced GOP criticism over his advocacy for marijuana reform.<\/p>\n After the gubernatorial candidate came out with a plan to legalize cannabis for medical and recreational purposes, South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Drew McKissick voiced opposition and said the Democratic candidate wants to \u201cplay with fire\u201d by embracing the policy change.<\/p>\n But notably, a GOP South Carolina lawmaker came to Cunningham\u2019s defense last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n .@henrymcmaster<\/a> put a picture of me with @mixmastermike<\/a> from the @beastieboys<\/a> and @Chali2na<\/a> from @jurassic5<\/a> in his attack ad and actually thought I\u2019d be mad. By far the nicest thing McMaster has ever done for me. pic.twitter.com\/x1nO9otC7n<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Cunningham (@JoeCunninghamSC) August 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Rep. Tom Davis (R) said at the time that his own party\u2019s stance, particularly as it concerns medical cannabis, is \u201can intellectually lazy position that doesn\u2019t even try to present medical facts as they currently exist.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis sponsored a medical marijuana legalization bill<\/a> that cleared the state Senate along largely bipartisan lines earlier this year, but it was killed in the House following a procedural challenge. He later tried another avenue for the reform proposal<\/a>, but that similarly failed this session.<\/p>\n South Carolina voters support legalizing medical cannabis by a ratio of five to one, according to a poll released in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been criss-crossing the state for over a year talking to voters about my plan to legalize marijuana, and McMaster just\u2026put it on statewide TV for us. https:\/\/t.co\/qVN43NA6n3<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Cunningham (@JoeCunninghamSC) August 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n McMaster, for his part, has consistently opposed adult-use marijuana legalization, calling it \u201ca bad idea\u201d<\/a> that isn\u2019t \u201chealthy\u201d in 2017. And while the vast majority of his party is in consensus on allowing patients to access medical cannabis, the governor has been non-committal about past proposals, declining to endorse Davis\u2019s bill earlier this year, for example.<\/p>\n He said his support or opposition would \u201cdepend on a lot of things\u201d that he\u2019d need to review if the legislation arrived on his desk.<\/p>\n Last week, Cunningham talked about how voters \u201care ready for a new generation of leadership. They are ready for values that match their own, so we are excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are not going to raise taxes, but we are going to explore new sources of revenue. We are going to legalize marijuana, legalize sports betting and we are going to take that revenue and pay our teachers more,\u201d he said<\/a>.<\/p>\n https:\/\/t.co\/lAhjdGQVGT<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/7XlWQpn9pA<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Joe Cunningham (@JoeCunninghamSC) August 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n With majority support for legalization across party lines, some have been left scratching their heads this election cycle as certain candidates have taken hardline stances opposing reform despite the popularity of the issue.<\/p>\n That political disconnect has been especially apparent in Pennsylvania, where the race for governor and a key U.S. Senate seat has revealed serious ideological fissures on drug policy.<\/p>\n The two major party candidates vying to be Pennsylvania\u2019s next governor are diametrically opposed on the issue of marijuana reform<\/a>\u2014with one backing legalization and the other insisting that it\u2019s a \u201cstupid idea\u201d that has turned other states into \u201crat holes.\u201d<\/p>\n As lawmakers in the state prepare for another session when legalization will inevitably be proposed yet again, voters will be making a key decision on whether they usher in an administration led by someone who\u2019s hostile to reform with Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano or embraces cannabis policy reform with the Democratic nominee, Attorney General Josh Shapiro.<\/p>\n Voters in that state might have seen drug policy reform take the spotlight in the social media spectacle that\u2019s become the U.S. Senate race between Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) and TV health personality Dr. Oz<\/a>.<\/p>\n Oz has lobbed attacks at Fetterman over his long record of supporting marijuana reform, and the Republican National Committee (RNC) has similarly seized on the issue, misleadingly casting the state official as a radical supporter of policies like legalizing heroin, for example.<\/p>\n All of this is despite the fact that, in 2020, Oz himself called marijuana \u201cone of the most underused tools in America\u201d and said that the country should\u00a0\u201ccompletely change our policy on marijuana.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n Key Missouri Lawmaker Who Heads Black Caucus Urges Opposition To Marijuana Legalization Ballot Initiative<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Democratic South Carolina Governor Nominee Welcomes Incumbent\u2019s Attacks Over \u2018Popular\u2019 Marijuana Legalization Plans<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Marijuana policy has reared its head in yet another gubernatorial race this election cycle, with the Republican South Carolina incumbent attempting to dissuade voters from electing his Democratic opponent because he supports marijuana legalization. And Joe Cunningham, a former Democratic congressman, is welcoming the attention to his popular, and increasinglyContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56915"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56915"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56915\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56916,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56915\/revisions\/56916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Democratic South Carolina Governor Nominee Welcomes Incumbent\u2019s Attacks Over \u2018Popular\u2019 Marijuana Legalization Plans<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"