The campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, released a policy agenda this week that includes a pledge to “legalize marijuana at the federal level.”
Harris promises to “work with Congress to ensure that the safe cultivation, distribution, and possession of recreational marijuana is the law of the land” if elected next month. This pledge comes nearly two weeks after Harris said in an interview, “I just think we have come to a point where we have to understand that we need to legalize [marijuana] and stop criminalizing this behavior.”
Former President Trump took a hands-off approach during his four years in office. However, he recently announced his support for Florida’s marijuana legalization initiative, Amendment 3, and endorsed federal rescheduling and marijuana banking legislation.
As a U.S. Senator, Harris co-sponsored the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which aims to deschedule marijuana, expunge certain cannabis offenses, and establish a federal excise tax for marijuana sales. Harris has also supported the Biden Administration’s efforts to reschedule marijuana to Schedule III. Earlier this year, Harris expressed her support for marijuana legalization, making her the first vice president in U.S. history to do so. After promoting the Biden Administration’s marijuana pardons, she said, “We need to legalize marijuana.”
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