Some candidates try to hide their history with drugs, but a write-in candidate for governor of Rhode Island wants voters to know that she uses cannabis all the time.
In a campaign video posted online this month, Anne Armstrong said she uses cannabis “every day," for both cooking and medicinal purposes.
“Yes, I do smoke cannabis, and yes, I do inhale,” she says in the video. “It helps me. It helps me to focus, it helps to facilitate communication.”
On her Facebook page, Armstrong states that she wants Rhode Island to be a state where “common sense, compassion, and cooperation can re-create Rhode Island into a place where everyone can live in abundance.”
As governor, Armstrong said that she would work to dispel a number of misconceptions about cannabis use.
“It doesn’t make people crazy, the way you’ve been told,” she says in the ad. “I hope that you will read and open your eyes and realize the truth that we’ve been lied to for a long time by our government.
During a speech at Hemp Fest in Boston earlier this month, Armstrong said that if she were elected governor, she would eliminate all penalties for growing, sharing and using cannabis in Rhode Island.
“I’m gonna sit and use cannabis as I govern from my office,” she said. “And I am gonna have my cannabis in the rotunda of the statehouse and it is gonna be a people’s cannabis garden.”
In the campaign video, Armstrong also attributes cancer and other chronic illnesses to a lack of cannabinoids in the body. Rhode Island does permit the cultivation and use of marijuana for certain medical conditions.
“Cannabis users shouldn’t be subject to shame, they shouldn’t be ostracized or marginalized and I hope you’ll help me bring that about.”
Armstrong then ends the video by taking a hit of pot from a small pipe.
Watch the full video above.
Before You Go
