Vice President Kamala Harris said part of the reason the administration's efforts to reschedule marijuana measures is slow is due to a federal bureaucracy that is “slowing things down,” including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, spoke briefly about the rescheduling process during a town hall hosted by “The Breakfast Club” star Charlamagne. She also disputed claims that her pro-legalization stance contradicts her career as a San Francisco prosecutor and California attorney general, saying those claims are “absolutely not true.”
Just a day after announcing plans to repeal federal marijuana prohibition, the vice president was asked about more modest reforms to the schedule. The proposal was formally submitted by the Department of Justice earlier this year following a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health. Human Services (HHS) will move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
She said the process to reclassify marijuana has been slower than the government would like because “we've had to work with the DEA.”
“There's a level of bureaucracy in the federal government that's slowing things down,” Harris said. “But essentially, it took a long time to undo the way cannabis was classified, the way marijuana was classified, to classify it as something less harmful. There's a process involved, but criminal That’s the work we’ve been doing in addition to the work we’ve done extensively on judicial reform.”
“As vice president, I was an advocate for cracking down on (CSA) marijuana, so instead of ranking it the same as heroin, I would rank it down,” she said. “My pledge, as president, is that I will work to decriminalize this law, because we want to make sure that we understand exactly how these laws have been used to disproportionately impact certain people, especially black men. Because I know.”
The vice president also expressed some frustration in March with the bureaucratic process of rescheduling marijuana ahead of a formal Justice Department recommendation and called on the DEA to quickly finish its work. She also privately promoted her pro-legalization message during a roundtable event with the president's marijuana pardon recipients that day.
The Justice Department has recommended rescheduling, but the proposal has faced resistance from the DEA, which has scheduled hearings on the proposal for Dec. 2, after the presidential election, when the new president is inaugurated. There are concerns that the process will not be completed until the
Separately, Harris was asked about criticism of her career as a prosecutor who oversaw certain marijuana-related prosecutions. “One of the biggest misinformation stories about marijuana,” Charlamagne said. “One of the biggest allegations against you is that you targeted and locked up thousands of black men.”
“That's simply not true,” she said. “What my public defender at the time will tell you is that I was the most progressive prosecutor in the state of California in marijuana cases, and I wasn't going to send anyone to prison for simple possession of marijuana.”
Former President Donald Trump, a 2024 Republican nominee, separately went after Harris over her marijuana prosecutorial record in July, claiming that Harris had “imprisoned thousands of black people” for marijuana offenses. '', but the full record of Harris' tenure has not been disclosed. is more nuanced.
That criticism is typically based on claims that the San Francisco District Attorney's Office under Harris has jailed more than 1,500 people for marijuana-related convictions.
However, this low number is still misleading. In 2004 and 2010, when Harris led the office, the number of misdemeanor and felony marijuana convictions was There were 1,956 cases. However, the actual number of people sent to state prison was 45. However, it's unclear how many people were sent to county jails, so the total could be much higher.
President Trump's line of attack, while misleading, is that the Republican candidate disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and that Harris has contributed to racially disproportionate mass incarceration. It was notable in the sense that it hinted that he was trying to take advantage of this idea.
Meanwhile, Harris, who has remained silent on marijuana reform for weeks since becoming the Democratic nominee, said last month: “We need to legalize 'marijuana' and stop criminalizing this act.” .
His campaign said Monday that if he is elected president, he will “legalize marijuana nationally and work with Congress to ensure the safe cultivation, distribution, and possession of recreational marijuana to protect Black men and others.” “We will break down the unjust legal barriers that stand in the way of Americans.” It's the law of the land. ”
The candidate's cannabis plan to “legalize marijuana at the federal level to break down unjust legal barriers that hold back black men and other Americans” is expected to win the vote of African American men. It's part of what her camp calls the “opportunity agenda.” specific.
To this end, Harris will “fight to ensure that Black men, who have long been over-policed for marijuana use, have access to wealth and jobs in this new market as the nation's cannabis industry takes shape.” the camp says. ”
By contrast, the vice president's new plan states that the Trump administration will “threaten federal prosecution for marijuana in states where marijuana use is legal and use illegal and unwarranted marijuana possession laws to put Black Americans in prison.” “We continue to do so.”
This appears to be a reference to the first attorney general's removal of Obama-era enforcement guidelines that generally directed prosecutors to respect state marijuana laws. However, this move was not followed by a large-scale crackdown on state-legal cannabis businesses.
“I feel very strongly that no one should go to jail just for smoking marijuana,” she said in an interview on the podcast “All the Smoke.” “And we know historically what that means and who has been sent to prison.”
“Secondly, I think we're at a point where we have to understand that we need to legalize this behavior and stop criminalizing this behavior,” Harris told host Matt.・Talked to Mr. Burns and Mr. Stephen Jackson (former NBA player).
“The truth is, this is not a new position for me,” said Harris, who supported federal marijuana legalization legislation as a U.S. senator. “I've felt for a long time that it needs to be legalized. So that's where I'm thinking about it.”
Also last month, Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said he believes marijuana legalization is an issue that should be left to individual states, and that he hopes to elect more Democrats to Congress to ensure federal reforms such as cannabis bank protection. It could also make it easier to pass reforms, he added.
Walz, the governor of Minnesota and a former member of Congress, avoided a reporter's direct question about nationwide marijuana legalization, saying, “I think it's a state issue in some states, and each state has done that. ” he said.
In the interview, Walz highlighted two issues of progressive reform. The passage of federal legislation that eases access to medical marijuana for veterans who receive their care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and loosens restrictions on banks doing business with cannabis companies.
He said it may be easier to address these issues if Democrats control both houses of Congress.
“There's work to be done nationally on banking issues,” he said in an interview with Spectrum News published Sept. 14. Once Democrats take control of the House and Senate, we'll begin to see whether some of those things make sense. ”
During her last presidential run, Harris supported complete decriminalization of simple federal drug possession.
Meanwhile, Trump recently said during his second term campaign that he supports federal rescheduling of marijuana and access to marijuana banks.
“As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical use of marijuana for Schedule 3 drugs, and support common-sense initiatives such as safe banking for state-chartered businesses and support for states’ rights to pass marijuana laws. “We will continue to work with Congress to pass legislation that is working very well for our people, just like in Florida,” President Trump posted on social media last month.
President Trump also recently discussed the medical benefits of marijuana, saying legalization would be “very good” for Florida and that Florida would consider reform at the polls in the November election.
But the Harris-Waltz campaign accused Trump of lying about his support for marijuana reform and argued that Trump's “blatant pandering” contradicted the Trump administration's record on cannabis.
After President Trump recently announced his support for a Florida marijuana legalization ballot measure, Democratic campaigns have been working to remind voters that Trump “rolled back marijuana reform” during his time in office.
In a memo from a campaign official's spokesperson, the Harris-Waltz campaign accused President Trump of “brazen flip-flopping” on marijuana, citing the former Republican president's “some embarrassing 'policies that deserve real scrutiny. This is one of the “proposals”.
As president, Mr. Trump largely stuck to his position that marijuana laws should be handled at the state level, a move that some feared after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama-era federal enforcement guidelines. There was no major crackdown on marijuana programs. In fact, President Trump criticized Justice Department officials and suggested the measure should be reversed.
Although he has remained largely silent on the legalization issue, he tentatively supported a bipartisan bill that would codify federal policy to respect states' legalization rights.
Still, he has issued several signing statements on spending legislation, saying he reserves the right to override long-standing provisions that prohibit the Justice Department from using the funds to interfere with state medical marijuana programs. stipulated.
Before Biden withdrew from the race, his campaign focused on the president's push for mass amnesty and rescheduling of marijuana, a contrast to the Trump administration's track record. Harris' campaign has so far not addressed that specific issue, and the candidate has yet to publicly discuss the issue of marijuana policy since his campaign was launched.
Elon Musk-backed organization donates $500,000 to anti-marijuana legalization efforts in Florida
Photo elements provided by the California Attorney General's Office.
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