NewsNation reports:

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., an independent 2024 presidential candidate, asserts the U.S. needs to “legalize pot to end addiction,” in a new campaign ad.

In the ad, which pulls clips from a C-SPAN interview, Kennedy described his plan to federally legalize marijuana and allocate tax revenue for substance misuse treatment and rehabilitation.

“What I’ve advocated is that we should legalize marijuana. We should have a federal tax on marijuana that is designated specifically for drug treatment and rehabilitation and I want to build, as part of my presidency, a series of renewal centers of detoxification, essentially, centers around this country to treat the rise in mental illness and PTSD and drug addiction that is debilitating our children,” he said in the ad.

Additionally, Kennedy called for reform to ensure that cannabis businesses can “bank their profit and their revenues,” rather than operate on a cash-only basis that “encourages more crime.”

Though he’s expressed concerns about “the proliferation of stimulants and mind-altering substances,” he added that he believes in “personal freedoms” and considers the current policy of criminalizing and incarcerating people over drugs to be untenable.