America isn’t the only place where cannabis is becoming a mainstream political issue. It’s also not the only place where reality TV stars run for president.
In Russia Ksenia Sobchak, known as “Russia’s Paris Hilton” and star of the reality show Dom-2, is running for president on a platform that includes the legalization of marijuana. She says cannabis is poses less danger to society than vodka.
The daughter of Anatoly Sobchak, former mentor to President Vladimir Putin and the first democratically-elected mayor of St. Petersburg, the 35-year-old Subchak junior is running with the Civic Initiative Party on an “against all” platform next March.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba9TqtdhVGn/?hl=en&taken-by=xenia_sobchak
A critic of gender and sexual discrimination, Sobchak has taken a pro-business, pro-rights stance, with promises to reform the courts, reform education, and privatize corporations. Her “against all” platform is a middle finger to the rest of the candidates. She’s the anti-politician politician, making a bit of a joke out of the election. “You don’t have your own candidate?” she wrote. “Check Sobchak. Your not electing her to be president. You’re simply getting a legal and peaceful opportunity to say ‘That’s enough! We’re sick of it!'”
Despite the lack of gravity in her campaign, given American history, it’s not altogether impossible her campaign could go far — and with that, may come cannabis policy reform in Russia.
At a meeting with supporters last week in Kaliningrad, the Sobchak suggested cannabis legalization could be a solution to Russia’s “narcotics epidemic.” In fact, Russia has been surprisingly progressive in fighting against their own Drug War, despite that Andrei Khrapov, chief of narcotics control at Russia’s Interior of Ministry, stands against cannabis legalization.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BcNLiR9hGRF/?hl=en&taken-by=xenia_sobchak
“I myself don’t use [marijuana], but I don’t drink vodka by the bottle either,” Sobchak said. “I don’t understand why drinking vodka in enormous quantities is considered normal in our country, but using marijuana is not, though it has far fewer consequences, even from the perspective of crime statistics.”
Whether or not the socialite’s presidential campaign goes very far, she is making cannabis a greater part of the political conversation in Russia — doing her part to push the needle forward toward reform.
