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Tulsi Gabbard, Hawaii’s democratic congresswoman and one of many entrants in the crowded 2020 presidential race, is already turning heads thanks to her anti-interventionist foreign policy approach and progressive stance on a variety of issues, making her an outlier among establishment Democrats.

If her pre-campaign messaging and campaign launch speech are any indicator, the potential presidential contender has no intention of backing down – especially when it comes to her strong advocacy of medical m******** and harsh criticisms of the criminal justice system and p************* industry.

Declaring her formal entrance into the Democratic Party presidential primaries, Gabbard issued a rousing call to end the for-profit prison industry, which has seen private corrections corporations rake in profits while shirking prisoners’ and immigrant detainees’ food, health care, and other essential services while exploiting incarcerated people as essentially slave labor.

“We must stand up against private prisons, who are profiting off the backs of those caught up in a broken criminal justice system,” Gabbard said.

Continuing, she added that “a system that puts people in prison for smoking m******** while allowing corporations like Purdue P*****, who are responsible for the opioid-related deaths of thousands of people, to walk away scot-free with their coffers full.”

We must stand up against private prisons, who are profiting off the backs of those caught up in a broken criminal justice system. This system which favors the rich and powerful and punishes the poor CANNOT stand. https://t.co/tw2NJx3FbQ #TULSI2020 pic.twitter.com/ux2xm3Vblk — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) February 8, 2019

Purdue P*****, the company responsible for making the OxyContin narcotic pill, was recently exposed in court filings by the Massachusetts attorney general to have deliberately conspired to mislead doctors and patients about the dangerous and addictive nature of the opioid in hopes of maximizing company profits.

Gabbard added:

“This so-called criminal justice system, which favors the rich and powerful and punishes the poor, cannot stand.”

Gabbard, an Iraq war veteran and member of Congress since 2013 who previously served as a state legislator in Hawaii and city councilmember in Honolulu, has long been a supporter of progressive cannabis laws and opponent of federal prohibition laws.

Last year, pro-legalization political advocacy committee National Organization for the Reform of M******** Laws (NORML PAC) hailed Gabbard as a leader in the fight for criminal justice reform and the decriminalization of m******** on a federal level.

In their endorsement of the congresswoman from Hawaii, the group laid out her extensive work demanding sensible cannabis policies:

Gabbard has also drawn a sharp nexus between the demands of Big P***** lobbyists and continued prohibition laws. Last year, she shredded then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions for rescinding the Obama-era Department of Justice memo, or Cole Memorandum, that instructed federal prosecutors to not enforce federal prohibition laws in states that legalized m********, characterizing the move as one which would “exacerbate an inhumane, ineffective system that tears families apart.”

“Sessions’ actions to protect the bottom lines of the for-profit private prison industry, and Big P***** whose opioids and drugs flourish in part due to the m******** prohibition, while trampling on states’ rights and turning everyday Americans into criminals is an injustice,” she wrote on Twitter.

Sessions’ actions to protect the bottom lines of the for-profit private prison industry, and Big P***** whose opioids and drugs flourish in part due to the m******** prohibition, while trampling on states' rights and turning everyday Americans into criminals is an injustice. — Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) January 4, 2018

And in a 2017 statement calling for an end to federal prohibition, Gabbard demanded that the government “work for people like veterans and healthcare advocates instead of p************* lobbyists who will continue to push dangerous and addictive painkillers even amidst an opioid epidemic.”

Gabbard isn’t the only contender to call out the p************* industry’s role in stalling m******** legalization and criminal justice reform.

Recent entrant and New York Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillebrand has also blasted Big P*****, noting:

“To them, it’s competition for chronic pain, and that’s outrageous because we don’t have the crisis in people who take m******** for chronic pain having overdose issues … It’s not the same thing. It’s not as highly addictive as opioids are.”