Sen. Welch: "War on drugs was way overbroad when it came to marijuana"

Who?Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT)LISTEN: Laslo & WelchAsk a Pol asks:Do you have any thoughts on the DEA — Drug Enforcement Administration — moving to reschedule marijuana?Key Welch: “I'm in favor,” Sen. Peter Welch exclusively told Ask a Pol. “Everybody knows the War on Drugs was way overbroad when it came to marijuana, and it did a lot of harm, and hard to see what good it did. And the overscheduling of it was a grave mistake.”Support SAFER Banking?“Yes,” Welch told us. Caught our ear:“The overscheduling of it was a grave mistake. It just isn't the same as hardcore drugs,” Welch told us. “So this is long overdue.”Below find a rough transcript of Ask a Pol’s exclusive interview with Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT), slightly edited for clarity.TRANSCRIPT: Sen. Peter WelchSCENE: Ask a Pol’s Matt Laslo catches up with Sen. Peter Welch as he walks across the grounds of the US Capitol. Matt Laslo: “Curious your thoughts on the DEA looking to reschedule marijuana?”Peter Welch: “I'm in favor.”SUBSCRIBER-ONLY CONTENT**Student? Lost your gig? Hard times? Been there. Got you. No questions asked. Just ping us.ML: “Yeah? Cause I mean — cause a lot of Democrats, like — are you with [Sens.] Booker and Schumer on the clemency part wanting, fighting for clemency for past convictions? Cause I'm curious if you all, if Dems lose leverage with the administration.”PW: “Yeah, I mean — look, everybody knows the ‘war on drugs’ was way overbroad when it came to marijuana, and it did a lot of harm and hard to see what good it did. And the overscheduling of it was a grave mistake. It just isn't the same as hardcore drugs. So this is long overdue.” ML: “Yeah?”PW: “And the prosecutions that were, in effect, treating marijuana as something much worse than it was, we should address that.”ML: “Yeah?”PW: “So, you know, I'm inclined to support that.”ML: “And I take it you're with your party on SAFER Banking?”PW: “Yes.”ML: “Yeah?”PW: “Yeah.” ML: “Yep.”PW: “Thanks.”ML: “Preciate ya, sir. Have a good one.”Andrey Beregovskiy and Walken Whalen contributed to this report.Content posted at AskaPol.com is copyrighted. Use our original content to move the story forward. And, please, link to us. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.askapoldrugs.com/subscribe