Hillary Clinton would support «the idea of» decriminalizing cannabis

Except for Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, who favors a legal cannabis market, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump's views on cannabis are pretty hard to follow.

Trump has changed my mind several times. Once in favor of legalization, which he felt was the only way to win the war on drugs, he is now more in favor of letting the states legislate one by one, without legalizing at federal level.

On the Clinton side, there's more of a wait-and-see attitude. In a new extract from her e-mail leak, and more precisely from the transcript of one of her meetings with Black Lives Matter,In the end, she would support the principle of decriminalization, but wouldn't know how to implement it.

«From my point of view, we need to look very closely at decriminalizing behavior that is not harmful, that does not lead to violence, and try to figure out the best way to do that,» Clinton said in response to one of the organizers of the movement Black Lives Matter to a question about the fate of criminal charges relating to cannabis and sex work, which have «historically been used to oppress» communities of color.

«I support this idea,» Hillary writes. «I'm not sure exactly how to implement it, you know, because most of the laws you're talking about are local or state laws. The government can encourage, make suggestions, provide incentives, but most of the criminal laws, all the problems we've been discussing are actually controlled at those levels.»

This transcript, an attachment to an email hacked from the account of Hillary's campaign manager John Podesta, was published on Friday by Wikileaks. It is part of a sample of messages of particular interest to observers of cannabis regulation policy.

Last week, the marijuana.com was one of the first to publish one of these e-mails, in which the former Secretary of State argued against legalization during a speech at (and paid for by) the Xerox company.

A other mail also suggests that some of her advisors recommended that she attack one of her rivals, Martin O'Malley, former governor of Maryland, for having gone too far in favor of decriminalizing marijuana, even though Hillary had not taken a position on the subject.

A third email contained an attachment of talking points to use in response to possible questions about cannabis policy. The document also revealed that Clinton supported access to banking services for cannabis businesses. This access is now restricted by the federal ban on cannabis.

So, what's the bottom line? Without doubt, Hillary is a good politician.