Kanye West Promises Free And Legal Marijuana As President

Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Staff/Getty Images

Who knows how serious Kanye is about becoming president, but at least he wants free weed for everyone.

Kanye West is sweetening the presidential pot, so to speak. After announcing his intention to run for POTUS on July 4, the Grammy Award-winning rapper, producer and fashion designer gave his first campaign speech Sunday evening, where he detailed various policy views in his trademark free-associative (some say “rambling”) manner.

Marijuana legalization was among the topics discussed during the rally, notably that the substance should be “free.” He also admitted to personally consuming the herb, a topic he’s never shied away from.

“I must tell you at my first rally that I did smoke a little bit last night,” Kanye told the crowd in North Charleston, South Carolina. “Every black man on trial for marijuana will be freed.”

This is not the first time Kanye discussed his marijuana use in this way. Back in 2016, Kanye was awarded the VMA Video Vanguard Award at the MTV Video Music Awards. His speech followed a similar stream-of-consciousness pattern as his campaign rally did. He paused at one point, like he did in South Carolina, and copped to smoking marijuana earlier that night.

It remains unclear just how serious Kanye is about running for president. He arrived onstage with “2020” shaved into his head, but has missed the ballot deadline in several states already. Kanye did qualify for the Oklahoma ballot but failed to collect the 10,000 signatures required for South Carolina.

While the crowd cheered along with many of Kanye’s statements, there was noticeable pushback to some of his more controversial opinions. He claimed that Harriet Tubman “never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people.” Kanye, who has four children with his wife Kim Kardashian, became emotional discussing abortion. He believes abortion should be legal, but added that women who want to proceed with birth should have more support throughout the process.

Said West, “The maximum increase would be everybody that has a baby gets a million dollars or something in that range.”

Published: July 22, 2020