Grading The Presidential Candidates On Marijuana: Kamala Harris

We can trot out some deep cuts with Kamala Harris here on the blog. In January 2018, I picked her out of the pile as an example of a politician who talks a big game on cannabis while doing nothing helpful. I also surveyed her record on marijuana, which was pretty miserable at the time. In that post, I noted:

As California Attorney General, Ms. Harris did little to advance her state’s interest as to cannabis. In 2014, when she was asked for her opinion on legalizing adult-use cannabis, her response was dismissive laughter. As a state Senator, she has failed to sponsor or even co-sign any bill to re- or deschedule marijuana (and there are some good ones). Aside from lots of talking, Harris’ one big move has been to put together a petition to decriminalize marijuana nationwide (but not to revise the CSA). My eight-year-old niece could do that.

Ms. Harris was a California Senator at the time I wrote those words. She later threw her hat in the ring as a Presidential candidate in the 2020 election. The national sentiment on cannabis policy, along with the Democratic Party’s, was fluid at the time. Harris seemed to evolve along with it. She began to call for legalizing marijuana on social media in 2019, and, as we pointed out in another blog post, her campaign website advertised:

Kamala will take action to legalize marijuana, further reform federal sentencing laws, end private prisons and the profiting off of people in prison, and push states to prioritize treatment and rehabilitation for drug offenses.

We commented:

As a Senator, Harris’ rhetoric has become increasingly pro-legalization. Most recently, in 2018 Harris co-sponsored the Marijuana Justice Act which would legalize marijuana if passed. Her apparent pro-legalization stance, however, hasn’t always translated into legislative action. Her recent co-sponsorship of the Marijuana Justice Act comes only after she passed up many opportunities to co-sponsor or sign bills which would have legalized or rescheduled marijuana. The timing of her co-sponsorship of the bill — just over half a year before her official announcement of her presidential candidacy — suggests her sponsorship was a political move. Harris knows she must visibly adopt the pro-legalization platform to have a shot at the presidency as the majority of Americans support legalization.  But we wonder how much priority she would actually give the issue if elected into office.

Harris didn’t win the Party’s nomination that year. Interestingly, a searing, cannabis-related takedown by Tulsi Gabbard helped submarine Harris’s candidacy. Gabbard led her indictment in that viral debate moment by saying: “She [Harris] put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.” Gabbard then assailed Harris on criminal justice more broadly. Harris’s candidacy never recovered.

Still, Biden picked Harris for his running mate, and most of us were fine with that. I put together another post in August of 2020 titled “Kamala Harris Will Help With Cannabis Reform (and That’s Good Enough for Me).” In that post, I summarized:

… It’s not how you start, but how you finish. Harris has really picked up the charge on cannabis issues lately, including in her role as Senate sponsor of the MORE Act. As drafted, the MORE Act removes marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act and provides expungement for certain cannabis offenses (and has a 3% chance of actually becoming law someday).

Still, if Harris keeps at it her advocacy will be a real boon, especially given Biden’s perplexing unwillingness to support cannabis legalization (we gave Biden a “D”), and especially given the Democrats’ failure at large to add marijuana legalization to the party platform once again this year. (Pretty disappointing, especially considering where the party was at in the run-up to the 2016 convention).

So we should credit Harris for coming around on cannabis, especially where the center of her party is still a half step behind. It is true that the Biden-Harris ticket is not the best that legalization advocates could have hoped for; but, like the U.S. at large, the Democratic party continues to float toward inevitably ending prohibition. Harris is going to help with that, even if it doesn’t happen as quickly as we had once hoped.

You know the rest. Biden and Harris were elected into office, with Harris supporting cannabis legalization and Biden pledging to “decriminalize the use of cannabis and automatically expunge all prior cannabis use convictions.” None of this happened, or will happen by November.

Instead, Biden ordered some overhyped federal pardons, and eventually, an administrative review of marijuana’s CSA placement. The latter directive resulted in a recommendation to move marijuana to schedule III. In the big picture, I offered that “what Biden did here may ultimately be helpful, but certainly not as helpful as possible. Biden passed the buck, putting us on an uncertain, circuitous path.”

Which is where we stand today. Kamala Harris, as Vice President, has mostly been silent through all of it.

So what would Harris do as President, with respect to marijuana? I think the right answer is: “Kamala Harris would do whatever is politically expedient, but she would not otherwise prioritize cannabis reform.”

Today I am giving Kamala Harris a “B” grade, if only because she is a Presidential candidate who has called for cannabis legalization. And I think she would likely make that happen– provided she doesn’t have to work for it.

For prior posts in this series, check out the following:

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Marijuana: Donald Trump

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Marijuana: Joe Biden

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Marijuana: Ron DeSantis

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Marijuana: RFK Jr. 

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Marijuana: Nikki Haley

Source: Canna Law Blog

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