Jimmy Carter is OK With Legal Weed, Will Obama Agree?

Impact

Former President Jimmy Carter said Tuesday that he favored legalizing marijuana, according to The Hill

"I'm in favor of it. I think it’s OK [...] I don’t think it's going to happen in Georgia yet, but I think we can watch and see what happens in the state of Washington, for instance around Seattle, and let the American government and let the American people see does it cause a serious problem or not," said Carter on CNN. 

The former president agrees with a majority of Americans who think the federal government shouldn't intervene in states where marijuana has become legal for medical or recreational purposes.  

"So I think a few places around the world is good to experiment with and also just a few states in America are good to take the initiative and try something out [...] that's the way our country has developed over the last 200 years. It's about a few states being kind of experiment states. So on that basis I am in favor of it."

According to The Hill, Carter also said he didn't think legalizing drugs would lead to an increase in usage.   

"All drugs were decriminalized in Portugal a few years ago and the use of drugs has gone down dramatically and nobody has been put in prison," he said.

Read more on The Hill.