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
They campaigned on this 4 years ago. They’ve done plenty of good things, but this one turned out out to be an empty promise.
Yea just ignore that Biden directed the relevant federal agencies to get this done and the HHS has already made the recommendation to move it to schedule 3.
Oh and damn, look at this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsinclair/2024/01/18/dea-considers-rescheduling-cannabis-what-this-means-for-us-and-global-reform/?sh=2ce8efef743f
The gears are still moving and the DEA, the agency with the final say according to the legal framework within the controlled substances act, is working on it with the executive branch is actively pushing to have it reclassified.
It’s almost like a bunch of you who are making brand new accounts to make these posts about broken campaign processes have no fucking clue what you’re talking about because, at the very least, you’re not paying any fucking attention.
If they’re going with the crowd, that’s societal inertia or peer pressure, not change. Harris is not making a big controversial stand, a majority of Americans want legalization - across demographics, political leanings, and income.
Now if she was advocating heroin prescriptions as a harm reduction, or expunging her own convictions for possession, or a systemic reevaluation of our drug law and enforcement approach? THAT’S a change that shows she understands how the law is bad, not this new political posturing to win votes callously
Or this is what she wants the law to be, that was what she did when her job was to enforce the law that existed back then.
DAs always have discretion in what cases to drop or move forward, along with being able to offer plea bargains. They aren’t legally required to prosecute everyone who smokes weed, it’s just good optics to a certain political class to do so. And that political class was a much bigger tent even 10-15 years ago.
“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.
I wouldn’t call being angry at a prosecutor putting innocent people into prison blind hate exactly. Certainly I wouldn’t accept the logic that the constituency wanted to put innocent people in prison and that’s why she did it, even if I believe that I would still find that morally repugnant.
Except being a politician is also about image as much as we may not want it to be. Biden being the champion of student loan forgiveness while also being the champion of making student loan debt almost impossible to discharge earlier in his career doesn’t really feel all that great ya know? Same shit with Harris.
I unironically think that if marijuana should be banned, then so should alcohol
If they were both first introduced today alcohol would definitely be the one people would want more restricted.
Alcohol can kill you pretty quickly if you’re not careful, IMO it probably should be more restricted than weed.
It’s too easy to make, and weed is too easy to grow, so neither should be restricted since they’re part of our culture and will be consumed anyway. Broadly true for other drugs as well since they can be got, but it’s not like just anyone can make MDMA (which, if taken in a pure and controlled dose, is safer than both cannabis and alcohol incidentally, with therapeutic benefits too).
Absolutely not true.
As soon as republicans discover it’s easier to convince underaged girls to fuck them if they’re drunk, it’s going legal.
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
Biden campaigned on rescheduling it so this is just nakedly trying to boost their pre-election popularity. They could’ve done this day one. They didn’t. They won’t.
Web archive of Biden’s campaign site, September 2019: http://web.archive.org/web/20190723224533/https://joebiden.com/justice/
Decriminalize the use of cannabis and automatically expunge all prior cannabis use convictions. Biden believes no one should be in jail because of cannabis use. As president, he will decriminalize cannabis use and automatically expunge prior convictions. And, he will support the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes, leave decisions regarding legalization for recreational use up to the states, and reschedule cannabis as a schedule II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts.
I’ll drop this here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahsinclair/2024/01/18/dea-considers-rescheduling-cannabis-what-this-means-for-us-and-global-reform/?sh=2ce8efef743f
Note the date. This is the final step in rescheduling marijauna.
And look at this. Pardons, wow: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/12/22/a-proclamation-on-granting-pardon-for-the-offense-of-simple-possession-of-marijuana-attempted-simple-possession-of-marijuana-or-use-of-marijuana/
They’ve been “calling for it” since Biden campaign. And reschedule? It should be descheduled.
And the DEA is actively working on it, which just so happens to be the final step in rescheduling a drug.
I hate it here for that reason. With this being the last option, I’ve reverted to Google News, NYTimes and SF Chronicle apps. Lemmy’s inability to feel joy has helped me ditch social media most of the time.
Oh sure, every 4 years Lucy comes out with the football and taunts you to take a run at it and I’m the one not being realistic. It’s total horseshit to disappear on an issue every 4 years except when you think it might help you in an election to wave it around.
It’s not “Lemmy sees something good happen”; nothing good has happened. The same platitudes have been trotted out for the 78th time. But maybe this time…!
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
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.
What do you mean? This is standard political fare… most of the population has the memory of a goldfish, so popular shit like this always waits until the election cycle.
Additionally, an executive order, or changing the chief of the DEA, are probably the least effective ways to handle it. All it would take is a republican administration to undo it all. The way that sticks best is legislation.
Your boat is leaking.
Do you either bail out the water, or try to get into port so you can fix it.
Or maybe, you do both. Biden can reschedule…. Today. He could have done it 3.5 years ago.
He hasn’t. He probably won’t.
You’re right that legislation is a more permanent fix. No question there. Doesn’t mean you don’t work the other, faster, solution to get something good enough for the time being done.
most of the population has the memory of a goldfish, so popular shit like this always waits until the election cycle.
Stupid uninformed people…
Most of them vote R or not at all.
But neoliberals refuse to acknowledge people who aren’t ignorant and do care.
“Because what are ya gonna do, vote Republican?”
It doesn’t work.
Maybe we try helping people? Worst case scenario, Dems actually help people when they’re in office.
Isn’t that the whole point of electing Dems? Isn’t that better than just stalling the Republicans destruction of our country?
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?
He waited 2 years till he lost the house, made a half assed attempt he knew would fail, then said:
See? Trying is just a waste of time, we should never try
And voters remember that when it’s two years later and he tries to tell them elections are important and if Trump wins suddenly the president is all powerful.
Neoliberals do the same shit as republicans. They need their voters to believe that when the other team is president, the president is all powerful. But when their own team is in power, the president can’t do shit, so it’s not their fault campaign promises aren’t kept.
The student loan forgiveness was swatted down because he technically didn’t really have the authority to do so, Congress typically holds the power of the purse. Rescheduling isn’t at risk of violating the separation of power as the DEA is under the purview of the executive.
It’s honestly just insulting at this point. Deschedule the fucking plant already, you doddering old fools.
When you’re done, we can have a frank conversation about the number of people directly killed by alcohol each year. (It’s literally infinitely more compared to marijuana.)
You can tell there’s an election coming up.
