Rand Paul making cannabis main stream in 2016 elections

Democratic contenders, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, are softening their stances. Declared Libertarian Party candidate, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson is vested in a cannabis enterprise.

But it's a Republican leading all others in legal cannabis.

Kristen Wyatt has covered Colorado cannabis politics from the beginning. The Associated Press reporter is telling readers that candidates from both major political parties are letting states make their own decisions about legalization.

White House hopefuls in both parties are taking donations from people in the new marijuana industry, which is investing heavily in political activism as a route to expanded legalization and landed its first major candidate, Rand Paul, at a trade show last month. But the Kentucky senator used a private back door, and aides erected a screen so photographers couldn't see the candidate standing by a green Cannabis Business Summit sign. Paul didn't talk about pot at a public meet-and-greet afterward. The largest marijuana lobbying group, Marijuana Policy Project, plans to donate tens of thousands to 2016 presidential candidates. [Wyatt, The anti-pot taboo shrinks in presidential politics]

Cannabis is now available in Minnesota for people with cancer that causes pain or nausea, glaucoma, Tourette syndrome, Lou Gehrig's disease, AIDS, epilepsy, Crohn's disease, multiple sclerosis or any painful condition expected to kill the patient within a year.

With American Indian tribes trapped in South Dakota poised to begin cultivation and distribution outpacing the state itself, Republican Governor Matt Mead of Wyoming is taking a proactive approach to cannabis.

Excitement is building as the Flandreau Santee Sioux Nation expands on its cannabis plan.

Legal cannabis just hit the streets in Oregon.

A change in Nebraska law that allows petition organizers to pay circulators by the signature, instead of by the hour has fired up cannabis rights advocates.

In 2014 Democrats who ran away from President Obama and cannabis rights lost big. Democrats cannot afford to fall behind in the cannabis race at the risk of losing young and unaffiliated voters to Paul who enjoys most of the support his father built among those groups.

I have a plan for South Dakota.

Just say now.