Mark Kelly Says He Supports Recreational Marijuana Legalization in Arizona

It was the great contemporary poet Dwayne Michael Carter, Jr. who once spoke of being “so motherfuckin’ high I could eat a star.”

Few mortals can boast of achieving such majestic heights. Mark Kelly, a man who orbited Earth hundreds of times as a NASA astronaut, is one of them.

Kelly is currently running to unseat Martha McSally as United States Senator for the great state of Arizona. Were he to win, Kelly would vote on federal policy, not state policy like the upcoming Proposition 207, which seeks to legalize recreational marijuana in Arizona.

But Kelly is a citizen of the state, and so when Brahm Resnik of 12 News grilled the candidate last week about his positions, he also asked Kelly where he stood on some Arizona ballot measures before voters on November 3.

Kelly squirmed on a few other questions but notably gave a direct answer on Prop 207. He’s for it.

“I think I’m gonna vote yes,” Kelly said. “It has some provisions in there to decriminalize it and address some incarceration rates for marijuana offenses — I think that’s good. I think there’s a funding source there. So I’m probably gonna vote yes.”

Kelly added, “We’ve got a split household on that one,” referring to his wife, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords.

“I think she’s leaning the other way,” Kelly said of Giffords. “We’re still discussing it.”

Asked by Resnik if he’d support removing marijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic were such federal legislation to come before him, Kelly said he would. “Based on my vote here in Arizona, I would seriously consider removing it,” he said.

For her part, when McSally was asked last month about her position on Prop 207, she declined to give an answer.

"I'll let the Arizona voters decide that," she said.

As a Congresswoman prior to being appointed to John McCain's seat after his death, McSally voted against several pieces of legislation that would have given additional freedoms from federal interference to states that sought to legalize medical or recreational marijuana. She did support a bill that allowed Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medicinal marijuana to vets. NORML gives McSally a D, a worse grade than Trump.

A Kelly victory in November is potentially a big win for those seeking to reform marijuana laws at the federal level. If a few other Democratic candidates for U.S. Senate also defeat their Republican opponents, the Senate majority will flip to Democrats, opening up new legislative avenues for change. Three weeks out, with Kelly up big in the polls, many cannabis advocates can almost taste those stars.