Kamala Harris' U-Turn On Cannabis: Here's Where She Stands On Weed Legalization Now

“No one should go to jail for ‘smoking weed,'” says Vice President Kamala Harris who has pretty much completed her total turn-around on the topic of cannabis legalization after having prosecuted some 2,000 marijuana offenders in her job as District Attorney of San Francisco, California.

Now that President Biden has bowed out of the presidential race, Harris is the presumptive Democratic nominee in a situation that is unprecedented in modern presidential history. But what does it mean for cannabis?

Harris, who built her career cracking down on gangs and drug dealers, recently criticized past policies that labeled marijuana a "gateway drug" and "failed policies."

Read Also: Joe Biden Drops Out: What Would Happen With Cannabis Legalization Under Kamala Harris Or Donald Trump?

From A Fierce Opponent To A Vocal Proponent

From opposition to California's Proposition 19, a 2010 ballot measure to legalize cannabis, Harris said, some seven years later, that marijuana needed to be decriminalized. She called to "end the federal ban on medical marijuana" during the Democratic State Convention in 2015, noted CNN.

In 2016, she made history becoming only the second African-American woman to serve in the US Senate.

In a 2017 speech, she said "While I don’t believe in legalizing all drugs, as a career prosecutor I just don’t, we need to do the smart thing, the right thing, and finally decriminalize marijuana."

Finally, Full Support For Full Legalization

In 2018, Harris openly backed adult-use cannabis legalization when she co-sponsored Sen. Cory Booker‘s Marijuana Justice Act, which would legalize cannabis at the federal level.

"Right now in this country people are being arrested, being prosecuted, and end up spending time in jail or prison all because of their use of a drug that otherwise should be considered legal," Harris said. "Making marijuana legal at the federal level is the smart thing to do, it's the right thing to do. I know this as a former prosecutor and I know it as a senator." 

In her book released in January 2019, “The Truths We Hold,” she spoke in favor of cannabis legalization. The same year, Harris teamed up with then-House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler on The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, a measure to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act.

During the 2020 vice presidential debate in Salt Lake City, Harris reiterated that a Biden-Harris administration would decriminalize cannabis and expunge the records of people with marijuana-related criminal records. To that end, in October 2022, Biden announced that he intended to pardon all federal offenses of simple marijuana possession.

Now, Harris is dedicated to pushing the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to accelerate the process of rescheduling marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act. The push for rescheduling stems from the recommendation of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for reclassification.

Harris Even Has A Cannabis Strain Named After Her!

Harris' cannabis endorsement even earned her a cannabis strain. In a recent interview with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, she learned about "Kamala Kush."

"You know, I think it’s interesting also because, remember, there was a time when people would say, ‘well, marijuana is a gateway drug,’ and these were failed policies,” she told Kimmel during the interview. “The resources should be better directed — and will be better directed — to deal with opioid addiction and what we need to do around fentanyl, getting more resources into mental health and mental health care.”

Read Next:

• Harris Vs. Trump: Can Biden’s VP Defeat Former President? Head-To-Head Polls Reveal Close Race

Cannabis rescheduling seems to be right around the corner. Want to understand what this means for the future of the industry? Hear directly for top executives, investors and policymakers at the 19th Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference, coming to Chicago this Oct. 8-9. Get your tickets now before prices surge by following this link.