During a Tuesday interview with PennLive’s editorial board, Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman falsely claimed that he has “never once advocated for legalizing” hard drugs.
“I never advocated for legalizing any of these hard substances, you know, ever, you know, or any of that,” Fetterman said. “It was part of a conversation, an honest conversation. Again, taken out of X more lives. You know, about addiction. And I’ve always made the argument that we cannot arrest our way out of addiction. You know, and we can’t criminalize addiction. You know, that is a disease. And now, tens of thousands of Americans die from addictions. And we have to be serious about that, and we need a solution. And that means having a conversation about that.”
“So, I have never once advocated for legalizing any of these things,” he concluded.
However, Fetterman has called for “decriminalizing” all drugs on multiple occasions.
“I’m pro legalizing marijuana, but I go even further than some of my colleagues because I’m for decriminalizing across the board,” Fetterman said in a 2015 interview with The Nation. “I see it as a public-health issue, not a criminal issue. I’ve seen first hand for the last 14 years the effects it has on families.”
In another 2015 interview, Fetterman again called for “decriminalizing” drugs.
“We as a country not only need to legalize marijuana, but we also need to start talking about decriminalizing [drugs in general]. I see it more as a health issue, not a criminal one. We are punishing people that are medicating themselves for some type of pain, be it physical, psychological, or emotional, and why would we want to criminalize that behavior?” He said at the time.
During a 2018 podcast interview with Aaron Watson, Fetterman recalled a meeting he had with the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) during which the organization was shocked by Fetterman’s push to “legalize heroin.”
“I’ll never forget the meeting I had at the DSCC where, you know, you assess yourself and your candidacy. And one of the things I kept talking about was the opioid crisis. And they’re just like, ‘wait, what are you talking about? For example, you want to legalize heroin?’” Fetterman said at the time.
In 2020, Fetterman endorsed an Oregon referendum “decriminalizing the possession and personal use of small amounts of all drugs.”
