Where Kamala Harris stands on cannabis

KAMALA ON POT
Here’s where Kamala Harris stands on cannabis

What happened: President Joe Biden bowed out of the Presidential race on Sunday afternoon, and endorsed his VP Kamala Harris. While it’s far from a sure thing, it’s likely Harris will be at the top of the Democratic ticket.

For those of you in the industry, it’s worth getting an understanding of what the cannabis business and policy environment will look like under Harris.

Where she stands: As a California prosecutor, Harris presided over around 1,900 cannabis related convictions. But despite her past, the Veep’s position on cannabis has evolved tremendously over the last few years. 

During a vice presidential debate in the last campaign cycle, Harris said that she and Biden would work to decriminalize marijuana and expunge federal records of those convicted on cannabis-related charges.

While she and Biden have not achieved those goals, the Administration has pushed to move cannabis from the most restrictive Schedule I to the much less restrictive Schedule III. It’s not decriminalization, but it’s a profound move — perhaps the biggest change to US federal drug policy since the 1970s.

They’ve also pushed to pardon those convicted of federal cannabis-related offenses.

The tea leaves: Reading between the lines, Harris seems to want to go further than Biden on legalization. 

She hosted a roundtable at the White House earlier this year advocating for cannabis reform with Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, rapper Fat Joe, and a few people who received federal pardons were among the attendees. (See snippet below.)

We don’t know if she’ll back full federal legalization as a campaign issue, but it’s clear she’s from a different generation than Biden — and Former President Trump. 

She’ll want to draw a clear distinction from the way the Biden Administration has treated cannabis — slowly and methodically pushing for reform — versus the Trump Administration, which rolled back cannabis reform. 

What she’s saying: “No one should be in prison simply for smoking weed,” Harris has repeatedly said during her tenure as VP. 

Harris also called cannabis’s status as a Schedule I drug, the same classification as heroin, “absurd.” 

“I’m sure DEA is working as quickly as possible and will continue to do so, and we look forward to the product of their work,” she said.

What’s next: If Harris ends up being the Democratic nominee, expect cannabis stocks to get a boost. She’s clearly more evolved on the issue than Trump, and especially more open to reform than the Republican Party.

But we still don’t know if she’ll be the nominee. For that, we’ll wait and see.  

-JB

As the political landscape shifts moment-by-moment in the US, we give you today’s Quote of the Day from way back in April, when Vice President Kamala Harris hosted a cannabis roundtable at the White House.

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