According to russia today television (RT) reported on the 18th, Gary Chambers, a self-proclaimed "social justice advocate" and a US senatorial candidate from Louisiana, released a campaign advertisement. In the ad, he smoked marijuana while slamming the marijuana ban.
Screenshot of the report
The video, titled "37 seconds," was released Tuesday and refers to the fact that, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a person in the United States is arrested for possessing marijuana every 37 seconds.
In an ad showing slow-motion effects, Chambers lit and smoked a marijuana cigarette, and the Democratic politician gushed out a series of reasons to oppose the marijuana ban: 7.3 million people in the U.S. have been arrested for smoking marijuana since 2010, states have "wasted" $3.7 billion a year on enforcing marijuana laws, blacks are four times more likely to be arrested for violating marijuana laws than whites, and "most people" arrested by police are not drug dealers, but people arrested for smoking small amounts of marijuana. All of the data Chambers cited came from the Acliberties Union.
Images in Chambers campaign ads Image source: Foreign media
Although he filmed and played videos of himself smoking marijuana, he may not face any legal problems with the campaign ad. Medicinal cannabis has been legal in Louisiana since the beginning of the year, and a 2021 law in the state that states a law that makes it legal for individuals to hold less than 14 grams of marijuana.
Chambers wrote on Tuesday: "I hope this ad will not only remove the stigma of smoking marijuana, but also drive a new conversation that will open the way for the legalization of this beneficial drug and forgive those arrested for outdated ideologies."
However, Chambers' path to Washington could be tough. Last year, he finished third in the open primary for Louisiana's Second Congressional District, where Democrat Troy Carter eventually won a seat. Even if Chambers wins the party nomination in November to run for the senator's hopeful campaign, he will face competition from Senator John F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a Republican, was elected in 2016 by a 20 percentage point margin.
Regardless of how likely Chambers is to win the election, he reflects the acceptance of marijuana by Democratic supporters. In the early 1990s, Bill Clinton, then a U.S. presidential candidate, told the American public that he had tried marijuana but "did not inhale it." Ten years later, former President Barack Obama said he had "inhaled marijuana," while current U.S. President Joe Biden recently promised to push for legalization of marijuana holding and legalization of medical marijuana.
Biden has yet to deliver on that promise, and laws regarding marijuana vary from state to state. In 18 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., the sale and consumption of marijuana is fully legal and regulated, while in 11 states it is completely illegal.
(Editor: ZLQ)