Illinois candidate for Congress opens campaign by smoking weed in video

marijuana
A candidate for congress in Illinois opened his campaign with a video of he and others using cannabis.
(Photo from Facebook/Medical Marijuana Inc.)

By Illinois Radio Network

SPRINGFIELD – A candidate for Congress in Illinois opened his campaign with a video of he and others using cannabis.

Anthony Clark is a military veteran with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He has a medical cannabis card. He’s running to unseat Danny Davis in the Seventh Congressional District, a seat Davis has held since 1997.

In the hour-long video, Clark discussed how cannabis “saved his life” and described his childhood in the Chicago suburbs and common cannabis use there.

“I smoked, possibly, every day, just to get through,” he said.

Possession of cannabis in smaller amounts is a misdemeanor by federal law and wouldn’t disqualify Clark from holding office.

He’s running on a platform to make the Schedule I narcotic legal nationwide.

“I went to a lot of legislators and things of that nature,” he said. “No one could give a good reason of why cannabis should not be legal on a federal level.”

Davis is the co-sponsor of a bill that would remove cannabis from Schedule I. The MORE Act is historic in that it’s the first federal legislation to progress from a congressional committee, though its future in the Senate is dim should it make it to the opposite chamber.

Clark is facing two others in his quest to unseat Davis, something he failed to do in 2018.

Illinois Radio Network can be reached at [email protected]

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