Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz believes marijuana legalization is an issue that should be left to each state, but added that electing more Democrats to Congress would make it easier to pass federal reforms, such as marijuana banking protections.
The topic of legalization came up earlier this month when Walz was interviewed in Wisconsin by Spectrum News reporter Charlotte Scott, who asked the candidate, “Should marijuana be legalized nationwide for recreational and medical purposes?”
“Well, I think that's a state issue and states have done that in the past,” Walz, the Minnesota governor and former congressman, said, avoiding a direct question about national marijuana legalization.
Walz then highlighted two incremental reform issues: access to medical marijuana for veterans who receive their care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and passage of federal legislation to ease regulations on banks that do business with marijuana companies.
He said addressing those issues may be easier if Democrats hold majorities in both houses of Congress.
“There's something that needs to be done nationally on banking issues,” he told Spectrum News in an interview published Sept. 14. “And if we have a functioning Congress that actually wants to solve the problems — if Democrats control the House and the Senate — then I think we'll start to see whether some of those issues make sense.”
The Democratic-controlled House has passed cannabis banking bills seven times, but reforms have repeatedly stalled in the Democratic-Republican controlled Senate, though it first advanced out of a Senate committee last year.
While the candidate stopped short of promising to pursue federal legalization if elected to the White House, both he and his running mate, Vice President Kamala Harris (D), have taken steps in the past to support legalization.
Walz's comments are believed to be the first time that either Democratic candidate has publicly discussed marijuana during this election cycle.
Walz supported numerous marijuana reform bills in Congress, campaigned on repealing prohibition while running for governor of Minnesota, and later signed a comprehensive marijuana legalization bill into law in 2023.
As a military veteran, he has made medical cannabis access a priority for the veteran community and sponsored the first standalone marijuana reform bill to pass a congressional committee, a measure aimed at accelerating research into medical cannabis for veterans.
Governor Walz also enacted legislation in Minnesota that aims to broadly decriminalize drug paraphernalia, establish safe use sites, and create a statewide hallucinogen task force.
Walz's record on marijuana stands in stark contrast to former President Donald Trump's running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), who has voiced support for states' right to legalize marijuana but voted against a bipartisan banking bill that passed in committee. Vance has also argued that states that have legalized marijuana should step up enforcement efforts, has repeatedly complained about the smell of marijuana, and suggested that marijuana use could lead to violence.
Senator Harris has spoken out in the past in support of federal legalization, including holding a private roundtable with cannabis amnesty recipients in March. As a senator, she introduced legislation to remove marijuana from federal law. During the last presidential election, she also supported complete federal decriminalization of simple drug possession.
Meanwhile, former President Donald Trump, during his recent campaign for a second term, said he supported rescheduling federal marijuana regulation and marijuana banking access.
“As President, we will continue to focus on research to make marijuana a Schedule 3 drug for medical use, work with Congress to pass commonsense legislation including safe banking for state-chartered businesses, and support states' rights to pass marijuana laws that work so well for their residents, like Florida,” Trump wrote in a social media post earlier this month.
President Trump also recently spoke about the medical benefits of marijuana, saying legalization would be a “very good” thing for Florida, which is considering reform in the November election.
But the Harris-Waltz campaign has accused Trump of lying about his support for marijuana reform, arguing that his “blatant pandering” is at odds with his administration's record on cannabis.
However, Harris herself has yet to lay out a clear policy on the issue since receiving her party's presidential nomination.
But following President Trump's recent announcement that he supports a ballot measure to legalize marijuana in Florida, her campaign is working to remind voters that President Trump “rolled back marijuana reform” during his time in office.
In a memo from a senior campaign spokesperson, the Harris campaign accused Trump of a “bold shift in stance” on marijuana, calling it one of the Republican former president's “many disconcerting 'policy proposals' that deserve serious scrutiny.”
The White House candidates' stance comes amid the ongoing process of moving marijuana to the less restrictive Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended this spring that the drug be moved to Schedule III, but the move has faced resistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which scheduled a hearing on the proposal for December 2, after the presidential election, raising concerns that the process may not be completed until after the new president is inaugurated.
Meanwhile, while President Trump recently criticized Harris' record as a marijuana prosecutor, claiming she has “sent thousands of Black people to prison” for marijuana-related crimes, Harris' overall record in office is more nuanced.
Trump's attack was misleading, but notable in that it suggested the Republican presidential candidate was trying to capitalize on the idea that he opposes criminalizing people for marijuana and that Harris has contributed to racially disproportionate mass incarceration.
As president, Trump has largely maintained that marijuana laws should be handled at the state level, and he has not implemented the wholesale crackdown on cannabis programs that some feared after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled back Obama-era federal enforcement guidelines. In fact, Trump has criticized senior Justice Department officials and suggested the move should be reversed.
He has been largely silent on the legalization issue, but has tentatively supported bipartisan legislation that would codify federal policy respecting states' right to legalize.
But he has made clear in several signing statements on spending bills that he reserves the right to ignore long-standing side provisions that prohibit the Justice Department from using funds to interfere with state-legal medical marijuana programs.
Before President Joe Biden dropped out of the race, his campaign heavily touted his push for a mass presidential marijuana amnesty and rescheduling, contrasting it with the Trump administration's record. Harris's team has not spoken on that specific issue so far, and the candidate has yet to publicly discuss the issue of marijuana policy since launching her own campaign.
A new Senate bill introduced to replace the broader ban would make hemp, CBD, and other cannabinoids federally regulated.
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