Kamala Harris said she’s long supported legalizing weed. What her California record shows
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Vice President Kamala Harris said in an interview for the All the Smoke podcast released on Monday she has long supported marijuana legalization.
As a federal legislator, Harris has worked to decriminalize weed. But as the district attorney of San Francisco and California attorney general, the Democratic presidential nominee’s stance was less clear.
“I just feel strongly people should not be going to jail for smoking weed. And we know historically what that has meant and who has gone to jail,” Harris said during the 47-minute episode of All the Smoke, a podcast hosted by former NBA and Golden State Warriors players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
“Second, I just think we have come to a point where we have to understand that we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior,” she said. “Actually, this is not a new position for me. I have felt for a long time we need to legalize it, so that’s where I am on that.”
The interview released Monday is the first time Harris has publicly affirmed her position on weed since officially becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.
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As San Francisco district attorney from 2004 to 2011, Harris oversaw over 1,900 convictions for cannabis violations, the San Jose Mercury News reported in 2019. Still, only a small number of those people ended up in prison.
When she was running to become California attorney general, Harris argued against a 2010 ballot measure that aimed to legalize recreational weed in the state.
She supported the legal use of medical marijuana.
The 2010 ballot measure, which would have let local governments regulate and tax recreational pot, failed. It was criticized for being poorly crafted and faced opposition from multiple California Democrats.
Running for re-election as California attorney general in 2014, Harris deflected when asked about her Republican opponent supporting legalizing recreational weed.
In 2016, Harris as California attorney general did not take a stance on the ballot measure that successfully legalized recreational weed for adults in the state. Harris at that time did not take positions on ballot measures, as her office was involved in preparing summaries for voters. Harris was also running for a U.S. Senate seat that year.
Harris said at the time that she generally backed legalization, but, “There is a whole concern about how we would detect to determine impairment for the purposes of legal or illegal driving. Those are real details and I take seriously when weighing in on a subject such as (this) that we have thought through the details.”
As a U.S. senator from California and presidential candidate in the 2020 campaign cycle, Harris supported efforts to legalize pot and expunge nonviolent cannabis-related offenses. Harris served in the Senate from 2017 to 2021.
In 2018, she cosponsored legislation with Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., to legalize weed federally. The Marijuana Justice Act was never voted on by the Senate.
In 2019, Harris responded to a question on radio show “The Breakfast Club” that she had smoked marijuana and supported legalization.
“I have. And I inhaled, I did inhale,” Harris answered, referencing former President Bill Clinton’s famous line that he “didn’t inhale” from his 1992 presidential run. Harris continued, “It was a long time ago, but yes.”
The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication.
Harris has previously been criticized for changing positions overtime on various issues.
Views on weed nationally have evolved over the past couple decades. Marijuana legalization has broad support, including across partisan lines.
Currently the Biden administration is working on a rule to drop pot from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. Schedule I drugs, including heroin and ecstasy, are the most federally regulated. President Joe Biden has also pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of simple possession and use of marijuana. Harris backed both of these efforts, including touting them at a White House event concerning weed reform this March.
Harris has decried racial inequity in marijuana arrests. An ACLU analysis of arrests from 2010 to 2018 found that Black people were 3.6 times more likely than white people to be arrested for marijuana possession despite similar rates of use.
Cannabis advocates have criticized the Biden administration for stopping short of federal legalization.
Former President Donald Trump, the GOP presidential nominee, too has a shifting record on cannabis legalization. This month, he said he supports the Biden administration’s efforts to make marijuana a Schedule III drug, among other efforts.
Trump’s campaign pointed to his recent post on social media platform Truth Social in response to a query for this story: “As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including safe banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens,” the former president wrote this month.
