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.
You can tell there’s an election coming up.
On today’s episode of “don’t bite the hand that feeds” we reclassify marijuana.
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If democrats can’t get this done ahead of the election it will be criminally negligent
Does it require Congress, including Republicans, to do it?
If it comes down to pretending it does versus letting up on the racist drug war, Democrats will need congress.
It’s not like it’s something they want to do, like supporting the genocide every last centrist has always wanted. Don’t need congress for that.
Not in all cases. There are different types of legalization.
Rescheduling is probably the better way forward because it would allow for medical use within the healthcare system.
No, the relevant agencies (I think FDA?) control how drugs are scheduled, so essentially it’s just a case of that agency making the change. I don’t even think the President needs to be involved in that.
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
Hahaha right. “But I swear guys he’ll do the right thing this time!!!1!”. Dictator day 1
Who said anything about Trump?
Talking about US politics and not mentioning the GOP is impossible.
At least it is if you can’t defend Democrats’ deliberate uselessness.
What makes you think there’s a giant majority of the country begging for a hard Left party?
Every poll I’ve seen puts ‘Socialists’ at about 6% of the population.
Do you have better data?
What makes you think there’s a giant majority of the country begging for a hard Left party?
Well, about this particular issue, 70% of the US wants what neither conservative party is willing to ever do.
Poll on the issues and policies instead of the labels and you’ll get wildly different results
It sure seems like it was possible, at least until you showed up.
Who was it who said that Twitter was great because they could tell you all they knew about any subject in 140 characters?
I did.
Or they felt confident that they would get a free win, and delayed it until the election news cycle. It’s likely a bit of both.
Both are bad
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
zzzz Wake me up when they actually do something
This is so cheap. They want the credit for fixing something without the effort of getting it done
If it happens, it will almost certainly be around oct. No use blowing such a popular move in the middle of an election year.
Big IF. Talk is cheap.
Every four years it seems. Language has gotten stronger though lately. Hoping they can pull it off with a strong showing this time around.
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.
This behavior is not limited to republicans.
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.
Yeah but this is lemmy, so as soon as you come out with a ridiculous take to satirize the topic at hand, whackos and edgelords will crawl out of the woodwork to support your ridiculous take.
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No data is needed Jesus Christ ppl been smoking it for hundreds of thousands of years.
Foh with that bs
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What information could possibly justify keeping cannabis illegal and criminalizing users?
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It’s wild that this is still even needing to be discussed.
Endless discussion is what Democrats do to pretend they’re making progress on shit they never have any intention of ever doing.
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Can’t wait to pick between blue maga, red maga, and an actual candidate…
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.
Shame you can’t make a point without being a cunt about it.
Only difference between blue and red maga is the tone eh? Red maga sounds like a gleeful psychopath, blue sounds more like a business schooled middle-manager on a power trip but both of them prefer ad hominem and sneering.
Funny how tribalism do lol. Most people have no chance of defeating their baser instincts. But they can sure feel smug about it lol.
She made her career out of prosecuting people for possession. And Biden played a big role in creating the laws she enforced. They’re all scumbags.
I mean to be fair people can change, but this is obviously not a case of having a change of heart its because she thinks it will increase chances of winning lol. They are all scumbags though for certain.f
Politicians are cynical, they will do what they need to do to get votes. So we have to be cynical as well, vote for people who will do more of the things we want even if they’re not perfectly doing everything what we want.
Until you can figure out a way to change humanity, you’ve gotta play the game even if you find it distasteful because the alternative is much, much worse.
They have been pushing this since their first year in office. They were pushing this before Biden even thought he would run again for president. “They are only doing things to get people on their side” is also how a Democratic Republic works. Their administration hasn’t broken from Israel, but they aren’t scumbags for doing what the people want. Many of us hate that we did not stop supporting Israel but I still have not seen a poll that shows over 50% of the U.S. wanting to stop supporting Israel. Blame it on news channels, media, propaganda in general, or just peoples outlook, but their job is to represent the majority of U.S. peoples opinions. We need to get more people speaking up against it elsewhere.
Example from USA today:
“Nearly half of American voters, 45%, believe Biden should pressure Israel to ease the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, an exclusive USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll shows.”
That is from a news source that supposedly leans left for American news. 45% isn’t the majority of voters, although it is finally getting close.
A lot of the fediverse is in an echo chamber where America is actually a progressive country. It hasn’t been, at least since Reagan but probably since Nixon or even Eisenhower.
Sorry, you must have had your head buried as the GOP’s war on WOKE meant much of the focus was dealing with BS like book bans, women care, human rights, fucking basic shit like voting.
Thanks, that’s just what I was going to bring up. Here we even have a short history of this being a several years effort, right in the article, yet there’s always a “they’ve done nothing all this time” post.
Are these political trolls/misinformation, or honest responses by misinformed people? And who benefits? Repugnicans? A foreign country? A self-righteous bubble of people with the attention span of a gnat?
“oh shit! They’re onto us about the TikTok thing! Quick! Bring up weed! The zoomers and millennials love that shit!”
Too late. I am never voting for my rep again, I won’t vote GOP but I won’t vote for someone who thinks Tik Tok is the priority
“nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed”
-The person who made a career putting people in jail for smoking weed
Yeah. Can’t trust’em as far as you can throw’em.
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.
I more mean that there are a lot of new accounts coming in and plastering this hate all over the place, and their reasoning is always “once a hater always a hater.” They aren’t here genuinely, or they are extremely ignorant of how humans work.
I’m sorry I don’t take your meaning. In response to a comment about people disliking Kamala Harris for her record as a prosecutor, especially when she knowingly withheld evidence and secured the imprisonment of innocent suspects, you just decided to talk about how hate is bad in general? Seems odd. Don’t know why you make the comment in that exact spot if it is nothing to do at all with the topic. Kind of confusing.
I’m saying that the intentional burying of head when it comes to her slow shift to supporting it being rescheduled, is hating for the sake of hate.
She did her job, and yeah her view was shit at the time. But she did what we all say we want people to do, and changed her tune. But somehow we still hate her?
You can hate past actions, but she either saw the light, or saw that her views were shit and is acting against her own views in support of the will of the people. A “yeah but” thrown on top is just trying to divide.
I’m sorry what? Where are you getting that she’s changed her tune? She isn’t up there talking about judicial reform or changing the way prosecutors work.
I know there’s been a big too-do about lemmy and it’s modding tools (or lack there of) but I worry that this is a major concern for the platforms long term viability. With reddit, we could restrict posting from accounts with less than whatever karma, I don’t know if that exists with lemmy communities.
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.
Just a reminder, until 2014 Hydrocodone was a schedule III drug.
Cocaine and meth are still schedule 2
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
And all those teenage “super predators” that Joe, Jack and Bill sent to prison
That’s what I dont get when people criticize Harris…
Biden literally sponsored the two crime bills back in the 90s that have caused 30 years of bullshit.
Harris as prosecutor was very outspoken about how stupid that shit was and didn’t follow the “three felonies = life in jail” bullshit.
If people want to talk about poor policing oractices, Biden is hands down the person most responsible in the Dem party. And all his “I can compromise with republicans” is how he got Dems to support such backwards legislation.
Harris was a DA, she wasn’t setting national procedures and passing laws
Biden sucks on this policy as well. Happy?
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.
