Story by Donald H. Harrison; photos by Shor M. Masori
VISTA, California – On the crowded football field of Ranch Buena Vista High School, Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders endorsed a California measure that will be on this November’s ballot to legalize recreational use of marijuana.
“We have got to rethink the so-called war on drugs,” Sanders told thousands of supporters. “For the last 30 years millions of Americans have received police records for the possession of marijuana and you know that if you are 19 years of age and you’ve got a police record, and you try to get a job, it is not so easy.”
“A lot of lives have been ruined as a result of those police records,” continued Sanders, a U.S. Senator from Vermont. “Right now under the Federal Controlled Substance Act, marijuana is listed as a Schedule One drug, right next to heroin. That is pretty crazy and that is why we are going to take marijuana out of the Federal Controlled Substance Act.”
Noting the ballot initiative to legalize recreational use of marijuana in California, Sanders said if the same measure were to be on the ballot in his home state of Vermont, he would vote for it.
The cheers from the crowd of thousands were voluble.
Under the proposition, which qualified for the California ballot via a petition drive to which former Facebook President Sean Parker donated $1 million, adults 21 years and over would be entitled to possess, transport and use up to an ounce of marijuana for recreational purposes in private settings. Additionally, individuals would be permitted to grow as many as six plants each. Driving while under the influence of marijuana would continue to be illegal, as would its use in public.
In his speech, Sanders also inveighed against what he called the “raging crisis” of opiate and heroin addiction in the United States.
“This is a crisis that has impacted people in every part of this country, including my own state where it is a very serious problem,” Sanders said. “It is a crisis which is killing people every day who are overdosing on heroin or opiates. Now, in my view, to effectively address that crisis, what we have got to understand is that substance abuse and addiction should be treated not as criminal issues but as health issues!”
He added that means “we need a revolution in mental health treatment in America. All over the country, including my own state of Vermont, there are people in dire need; people who are suicidal, people who may even be homicidal; people who are addicted to drugs. They need help and they need it today, not six months from today.”
His discussion of marijuana and heroin came near the end of an hour-long speech in which he also struck his familiar themes of Wall Street and billionaires having too much influence over the economy and over politicians who collect money from them. He also repeated his call for the Democratic party to open up to people at the grass roots level, rather than being responsive to Political Action Committees and other organized interests controlled by the wealthy.
Adding to the excitement of the many high school students in the crowd was the fact that Sanders was introduced by actress Shailene Woodley, who starred in the TV series The Secret Life of the American Teenager and the movies Insurgent and Divergent.
Woodley said that establishment politicians are doing everything in their power to squelch democracy, by closing party primaries to everyone but already registered Democrats. She urged Sanders supporters not to conform to establishment norms, noting “Conformity didn’t win the Revolutionary War; conformity didn’t win women the right to vote.”
With his main opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, nearing the magic number of delegates she needs to win the party’s nomination, Sanders stressed his belief that by doing well in the remaining primaries – including the one to be held June 7 in delegate rich California – he will be able to persuade the Democratic party that he, and not Clinton, is the candidate more likely to defeat the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in November.
At one point in his speech, Sanders donned a Ranch Buena Vista sports cap, winning cheers from the young audience.
In the audience were at least two people who were chosen by caucuses to be delegates to the National Democratic Convention—should Sanders win their respective congressional districts. They told the San Diego Jewish World they were split on whether they should support Hillary Clinton if Sanders is unable to overtake her lead and she becomes the party’s official nominee.
Lorraine Salas from the 36th Congressional District, which includes the Coachella Valley, said she hopes that Sanders will run as an independent candidate if he doesn’t win the nomination. “I would beg it of him,” she said. “I have put in so much of my time and energy into his campaign. I really hope that he listens to the 40 percent of us across the United States who are independent.”
Would such a third-party effort throw the election to Trump?
“I think if you give it to Hillary, Trump will win,” she countered. “You have a larger chance of Democrats winning if Bernie is the nominee. There are a lot of people who changed their party preference just to vote for him.”
On the other hand, Genevieve Seaman, who was chosen to be a Sanders delegate by her caucus in the 50th Congressional District, which includes such East San Diego County towns as Alpine, told this publication: “I am voting Democrat regardless, because that is where I am and who I am.”
Even if Hillary is the nominee?
“I can’t say that Hillary is bad,” she responded. “It is just that she doesn’t inspire me.” Noting that many new and young voters have become involved in the Sanders campaign, Seaman said the Sanders movement reminds her of the enthusiasm she initially felt for politics in the 1960s.
Among other attendees was Jerry Malamud of San Diego, who made 1,000 of his own campaign buttons proclaiming his allegiance to Sanders. He said he is another person who will not vote for Hillary in the general election; rather he would write-in Sanders’ name. Asked if there were no way he could vote for Hillary, he responded, “she’d have to change an awful lot.”
Malamud, who is Jewish, said he was proud that Sanders is the first Jew to get so far in U.S. presidential politics. He said he and Sanders both lived on Israeli kibbutzim – albeit different ones—during their lifetimes
“What gets me very upset is that many of the people who I’ve spoken to about Bernie, many of my fellow compatriots, Jews, say they will not vote for him because ‘A Jew cannot be elected.’ They believe in everything he says, they believe in Bernie, but they are going to vote for Bernie.”
Asked what he thought about Sanders’ various criticisms of Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, he responded, “He supports my thoughts on Israel exactly—the J. Street thoughts. It is time to recognize a Palestinian state and to stop this occupation which is creating all the terrorist problems. … I would get rid of Netanyahu in a minute if I could.”
Another attendee, Blanca Hernandez, said she already has attended two Sanders rallies because “he is the one politician who is actually caring about the people and listening to the people. He is just an amazing man. He rocks!”
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Harrison is editor and Masori is a staff photographer of San Diego Jewish World. Harrison may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com and Masori via shor.masori@sdjewishworld.com. Comments intended for publication in the space below MUST be accompanied by the letter writer’s first and last name and by his/ her city and state of residence (city and country for those outside the United States.)