Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday called on the federal government to move “as quickly as possible” to change the way it officially classifies marijuana, saying that “nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”
“I cannot emphasize enough that they need to get to it as quickly as possible,” Harris said. “We need to have a resolution based on their findings and their assessment. This issue is stark when one considers the fact that on the schedule currently, marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin ― as dangerous as heroin ― and more dangerous than fentanyl, which is absurd, not to mention patently unfair.”
Marijuana is currently listed as a Schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration. That classification designates it one of the most dangerous drugs possible, with no medicinal uses. Other substances in the same category include heroin, ecstasy and LSD. Marijuana advocates have been pushing for years for the federal government to either reschedule marijuana to a different category or deschedule it entirely.
Harris oversaw more than 1,900 marijuana convictions in San Francisco, previously unreported records from the DA’s office show. Her prosecutors appear to have convicted people on marijuana charges at a higher rate than under her predecessor, based on data about marijuana arrests in the city.
As the political winds blow with her I guess. At least it’s a positive change.
Eh.
That was when it went from jail to a fine though.
So lots of people stopped giving a shit and started smoking publicly.
And she’s been pro legalization for years now.
There’s lots of shit to criticize Biden and Harris on, but Harris’s time as a DA and her cannabis conviction just isn’t a good one.
“Under Harris, the D.A.'s office obtained more than 1,900 convictions for marijuana offenses, including persons simultaneously convicted of marijuana offenses and more serious crimes.[73] The rate at which Harris’s office prosecuted marijuana crimes was higher than the rate under Hallinan, but the number of defendants sentenced to state prison for such offenses was substantially lower.[73] Prosecutions for low-level marijuana offenses were rare under Harris, and go her office had a policy of not pursuing jail time for marijuana possession offenses.”
From her Wikipedia page (the reference is pay walled and im not invested enough to figure it out).
As an AG, it was her role to uphold the law and bring forward prosecutions.
I’m recognizing positive change, which is an option now with her new role
Edit I’ll also acknowledge it’s an election year and this is a popular topic TOO
I think if Biden and Harris were to officially endorse decriminalizing or legalizing recreational marijuana, we’d see a Democrat landslide. But that would require some actual common sense from Congressmen.
In October 2022, President Biden announced a mass pardon for past federal cannabis possession convictions, encouraged governors to do the same for state cannabis possession convictions, and instructed Attorney General Merrick Garland and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra to review the classification schedule of marijuana, which could result in removal of cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.[20]
Once again, Biden already did the good thing, but you people never heard about it
If democrats can’t get this done ahead of the election it will be criminally negligent
They’ve had 4 years, it’s already negligent
Donald Trump came into office and had both Houses.
Never even mentioned weed, unless it was to talk about how users should be executed.
But I’m sure he’ll change next time
Who said anything about Trump?
Talking about US politics and not mentioning the GOP is impossible.
I unironically think that if marijuana should be banned, then so should alcohol
Maybe try reading about the 1920s attempt and get back to us on if you still feel that way.
The difference is I don’t think either should be banned, really. But mainly because the bans just don’t work.
“Somebody ought to do something about this ASAP,” says one of the only people on the planet actually capable of doing something about it for the last 4 years. OK.
Lemmy sees something good happen:
“Not good enough!”
We all know it should have happened before, but dismissing that the vice president just publicly called for this is silly
The words of a politician are not accomplishments.
If it ever gets descheduled, it’ll be an accomplishment. I’m not going to treat announcements as accomplishments.
Public discourse from a sitting executive politician represents progress. It is not enough yet, but it is progress. In years past such statements would have been massively disruptive, and via speech like this the topic is being normalized.
It’s not enough yet. We arenf done
Stop expecting me to believe that politicians’ lies are progress just because you believe them.
It’s not an accomplishment until it’s accomplished.
Just because you don’t understand the power of normalized discourse doesn’t mean I have some obligation to you.
I’m just telling you how reality works.
Edit im proud to hear more discussion of climate, LGBT, drug decrim and other issues, at increasingly public and increasingly executive levels.
I know the difference between hot air and accomplishments. You’re not going to gaslight me into accepting the former as the latter. All you’re doing is convincing me that you prefer words to accomplishments.
50 years ago a woman, non-white politician wouldn’t have been a common thing. Part of how we got to where we are today is via public, popularized discourse.
The same occurs in this article and the speech that lead to it.
It doesn’t mean the world is changing in an active sense, but it does mean the conversation is happening. This is part of the power of executive office.
I’m sorry you had to learn about this from me.
Biden could order cannabis descheduled ( what his campaign program was) and if agencies don’t listen, fucking fire the agency heads and hire someone that will. It literally one of the handful of things he could do himself.
But somehow it’s 3.5 years into his first term. And Biden has apparently compromised even more with himself and we won’t get his original compromise of descheduling.
When a president acts like this right before their next election, lots of voters rationally stop believing any of their current campaign promises.
He attempted to forgive student debt (which was in his right to do so as head of the executive branch) and got swatted down by the corrupt Supreme Court. What do you think will happen if he rescheduled marijuana?
“nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed”
-The person who made a career putting people in jail for smoking weed
Harris has been pro weed for years now. One of the foremost issues with our political system in the US is that these people are elected by a constituency that demands a job be done in a way that they want. (I am purposely ignoring the corporate donor aspect for this statement)
The locality (and the era) demanded drug dealers go to jail, so she did her job. Where Harris has floundered is how she talks about it and attonrs for it today.
You can be outspoken about a politicians past, but it’s disingenuous to ignore that a politician has changed, especially so if they have changed with positive progression.
Hey now, the hate boner doesn’t get off on logic, it gets off on mindless hate.
As quickly as possible…now that we’ve done nothing about it for nearly four years, but we have to win another election soon.
“Done nothing about it” are you an actual child or do you just have a child’s perspective on life? We can’t have nice things if some of you don’t put in the basic effort to think a bit. Biden is not the most progressive anything, but he’s doing more than his predecessors on either side (and the pathetic gop alternative) and that’s progress.
You don’t make major legislative change by firing a cannon at the front door - you set several small fires at all the other exits on the building and then when all that is in motion, you just knock on the front door to warn everyone about the fire and they walk out willingly.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/06/politics/marijuana-decriminalization-white-house-joe-biden/index.html
https://www.npr.org/2023/12/22/1221230390/biden-pardons-clemency-marijuana-drug-offenses
On December 2, 2022, Biden signed the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act - “the first standalone marijuana-related bill approved by both chambers of the United States Congress”
Biden approved the Viktor Bout–Brittney Griner prisoner exchange work Russia on December 8, 2022 which involved an American WNBA athlete being convicted of cannabis possession on Russian soil and being held in Russian prison.
You know, this is a pretty smart way to approach the political side of this tactically.
Biden can’t say deschedule it outright without offending at least some borderline fence sitters and the elder crowd indoctrinated with the old propaganda that made it out to be among the most terrible things.
By having the younger VP who wouldn’t really have direct authority to have it changed but is directly I’m the same circles, it gets the idea out there as a ‘very strong unofficial stance’.
Next step, the ‘cool grandpa’ moment when Biden gets to make a gesture for the younger crowd by having it pulled from the schedules. Financially the feds have undoubtedly been eyeing the income (and lack of incarceration costs) brought into states with legal sales for a while and would like a piece of it too.
Just another thing they pretend to do to get elected but Don’t actually accomplish anything.
So lies and deception? I don’t know who is left to deceive when this sounds like the position the WH had two decades ago (when Biden was in Harris’s exact role). Since then the only changes have been brought about by State’s thumbing their nose at the Federal Government. I can honestly say the argument for “State’s Rights” hold more promise for marijuana legalization than Harris’s words.
Neoliberals dont want elected to help people, they want to get elected.
It’s why they can see something like this where a president could do something day 1, but waits four years before doing it, and call it smart strategy. Even when it’s not a political.process and the president can do it on their own.
It’s why there’s always the focus on “stopping by the republican”.
That’s all neoliberals want to accomplish, get in office and hold on as long as they can.
Progressives want to get elected to help people, and have faith if you help people they’ll vote for you.
There’s no sane reason for neoliberals to be running the Dem.party on national and state levels, but it’s a private party and they get an absolute shit ton of money from billionaires and corporations. So it’s very hard to kick their old asses out of power while also fighting off conservative extremist Republicans.
But when the neoliberals wins, nothing gets fixed. Their dogs chasing a car, if they catch it they dont know what to do, so they lay down and wait for another car to drive by.
Progressive idealism is all well and good, but without acknowledging the realities of a highly polarized world and the balances of power in play all it will ever be is idealism, never realized fact.
Many of the broader growths in society didn’t have a defining ‘flip the switch’ moment and instead where the result of small changes that then where the building blocks to bigger ones after the smaller steps where accepted as normal parts of society.
Progressive idealism is
Is made up.
No progressive says we can’t address a problem until it’s 100% solved.
That’s what neoliberals say for an excuse not to make any improvements.
It was literally Biden s excuse last primary for why he wouldn’t address student loan debt. He said if he forgave all student loans debt it wouldn’t matter because new students would still need loans.
So Biden said his priority would be first lowering the cost of college.
Then he got elected, never mentioned that, and forgave almost enough to be a rounding error in the trillion of dollars in student loan debt and demanded applause.
Recall that the SC blocked him on some of that (reminder that elections have consequences) and there were efforts to reduce costs for future borrowers too.
Former cop desperate for relevance. Maybe do the right thing before you ruin lives and not as it becomes acceptable and politically convenient.
How many pot smokers do you think she sent to prison as a DA?
And all those teenage “super predators” that Joe, Jack and Bill sent to prison
More than 1900 pursued, that’s for sure.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/09/11/kamala-harris-prosecuting-marijuana-cases/
Imagine prepping up past assholes as the bar 🤣
It’s like the DNC hiring previous lobbyist from companies like Uber, Lyft & Airbnb to define union policies.
"Move as quickly as possible " it is imperative so I can get reelected!
Let’s hope more politicians don’t do things that the majority of the people want in order to be reelected, what a terrible world that would be.
My point is they haven’t done it already because their doners want people in their prisons. It is the same reason it will never pass and they know it. She is just saying words. That’s it. Pandering to people dumb enough to believe them. Just like their spill about taxing the rich and student loan relief. It goes directly against the interest of the people that got them where they are. The half ass attempts are to make us think they tried and the big bad Republicans stopped it. It’s all theater.
Pretty sure she put a ton of people in jail for this in Washington state. If that’s really how you feel where was the leniency then?
Tell me more about her history in Washington state, please.
Not sure why the downvotes but it’s true. I don’t have case specifics - just google around a bit.
In what capacity did she put people in jail in Washington state? Let’s follow this thing through to the end.
just Google around a bit.
Have to admit this made me laugh lol.
Give him a break… At least acknowledge she did put people in jail for it.
No because he’s just parroting a talking point that he’s heard here without even being accurate.
He could at least acknowledge that her position has changed and we’re close to progress.
Her positioned has changed? If you want a politician that is true to their beliefs then you elect someone like Bernie. If you’re okay with someone that will revert course again when they want to fill their pockets with more private-prison money, but at least they’re not Trump, then you go with Biden/Kamala.
Or, and hear me out on this, her position truly changed.
I used to think billionaires were cool. Now I think they’re detrimental to society and represent a lot of what’s wrong with wealth inequality in this country. People learn, opinions change - we should welcome that.
I barely touched weed my whole life until I got medical access ~5 years ago. I was also never a big drinker or user of other recreational substances.
The stuff helps me so much that I use my vape or edibles almost every single day. That plus the margin of safety makes it downright cruel in my eyes that it’s prohibited in so many places.
But I guess given the racist motives of the anti-marijuana push 40 years ago, maybe the cruelty was the point.
