Democratic candidate for the US Presidency Kamala Harris hasn’t done many interviews, but she’s starting to get out there on the trail. Her most recent stop was with a podcast titled “All the Smoke”. At the end of the interview they did some quick questions, and one was about her views on cannabis.
“I just feel strongly, people should not be going to jail for smoking weed. And we know historically what that has meant and who has gone to jail. Second, I just think we have come to a point where we have to understand that we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior. Actually this is not a new position for me. I have felt for a long time we need to legalize it. So that’s where I am on that.”
Despite this being the first time she has spoken about the issue as a candidate for President, it’s true that she has supported legalization in the past as a Senator by co-sponsoring a bill that would federally legalize the plant. Back in March, she also had voiced support for legalization during a round table with recipients of Biden’s pardon.
This does come as a bit of a surprise because recently, her vice president pick Tim Walz had said they he felt that it’s an issue that should be left up to the states. He voiced support for Veteran access and banking, but not for federally legalization. Harris’ words, though brief, goes further than Walz.
For comparison, Trump now supports the rescheduling of marijuana to Schedule III, which the DEA is on course to do at the end of this year.
So for a while there it seemed there was little hope of marijuana being fully, federally legal with both Biden and Trump as our candidates. But if Harris wins the presidency we may see legalization in the near future.
Read the original article over at Marijuana Moment.
