Vice President Kamala Harris has pledged to federally legalize cannabis, ensuring access to it is the “law of the land.”
If elected, she would work to “legalize marijuana nationally and work with Congress to ensure the safe cultivation, distribution, and possession of recreational marijuana is the law of the land.” “We will break down the unjust legal barriers that hold back other Americans.” The Harris campaign made the announcement on Monday.
The Democratic presidential candidate's marijuana plan would “legalize marijuana at the federal level to break down the unjust legal barriers that stand in the way of black men and other Americans,” as her campaign seeks to capture the African American vote. It is part of what we call the Opportunity Agenda, which aims to capture the Especially men.
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.” says the camp.
“This groundbreaking agenda includes legalizing recreational marijuana and creating opportunities for Black Americans to succeed in this new industry.”
In contrast, the vice president's new plan states that former President Donald Trump's administration “threatened federal marijuana prosecutions in states where marijuana use is legal and enacted marijuana possession laws to put Black Americans in prison.” “It continues to be used unfairly and unjustly.”
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.
My parents met during protests for civil rights. When I was a kid, they took me to marches in a stroller.
It was my first memory of seeing people fighting for the freedoms and promises of America that had been held back from them for so long.
During my travels… pic.twitter.com/kNKPss77fU
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 14, 2024
Last month, Harris revealed that she still supports marijuana legalization. Harris previously championed marijuana legalization as a senator, but has not publicly discussed it since becoming President Joe Biden's vice presidential nominee in 2020.
“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.”
Until now, Harris has not addressed her position on marijuana as part of her current White House campaign.
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, dodged a direct question from a reporter about legalizing marijuana nationwide, saying, “I think in some states it's a state issue, 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.
In an interview with Spectrum News published Sept. 14, he said, “There's work to be done nationally on banking issues.” Once Democrats take control of the House and Senate, we'll begin to see whether some of those things make sense. ”
Harris has previously spoken out in favor of federal legalization, including at a private roundtable event with marijuana amnesty recipients in March. During her last presidential run, Harris supported complete decriminalization of simple federal drug possession.
Meanwhile, former President Trump recently said during his second term campaign that he now supports federal marijuana rescheduling 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 implement common-sense measures 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, like Florida, is working very well for our people,” 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 marijuana.
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 cannabis, citing the former Republican president's “several embarrassing 'policies that deserve real scrutiny. This is one of the “proposals”.
The presidential candidates' stance comes as the process of moving marijuana to the less restrictive Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) is underway.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended this spring that the drug be reclassified as Schedule III, but the move has faced resistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which announced that A public hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Dec. 2. There are growing concerns that the process will not be completed until a new president is sworn in.
Meanwhile, President Trump also recently went after Harris over her marijuana prosecutorial record, claiming that she has “put thousands of black people in jail” for marijuana crimes, but her overall record in office is even more shaky. .
Trump's line of attack, while misleading, is that the Republican presidential candidate disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and that Harris has contributed to racially disproportionate mass incarceration. It was notable in the sense that he hinted that he was trying to take advantage of this idea.
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 large-scale crackdown on marijuana programs. In fact, President Trump criticized Justice Department officials and suggested the measure should be reversed.
He has remained largely silent on the issue of legalization, but he tentatively supported a bipartisan bill that would codify federal policy to respect states' legalization rights.
However, he has issued several signing statements on spending legislation, saying he reserves the right to override longstanding provisions prohibiting 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.
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