Kamala Harris signals she'll go further than Biden on marijuana legalization "we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior"
Kamala Harris signals she'll go further than Biden on marijuana legalization "we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior"
Kamala Harris has historically supported marijuana legalization but hadn't clarified her stance since launching her presidential campaign.
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The president can order agencies to reschedule it, which makes it defacto legal in a lot of states, and means federal employees in states where it's legal can use, including military.
She should do that asap, because the fight to actually legalize is a lot harder.
I don't want to see her say it needs to be legalized and then refuse to take any step thats not the hardest
Biden already started that process to move it to schedule 3. It's been moving through slowly but it's got a public hearing on December 2nd
The public comments were overwhelmingly in favor of full deschedule/legalization, but all he's pushing for is reschedule to 3, which means they'll probably go to 2 because fuck you that's why. Hopefully Harris can lean into it a little harder than Biden has.
As a senator Harris introduced bills that would've fully legalized it. Meanwhile I don't think Biden ever publicly said he wanted full legalization
I think there's pretty good odds she would go further than Biden in executive action alone
Biden was calling it a gateway drug just before entering the office of president. I don't believe he's evolved personally at all. Policy, which is kind of weak, may be another thing. But I don't think the man sees any value in marijuana, for anybody.
Is anyone actually surprised that Biden is extremely anti-narcotics given his son's battle with drug addiction?
Harris doesn't have the same baggage. If she were at the helm, I think she'd follow through.
But that's just the point. Part of marijuana adoption is getting away from worse drugs. There is plenty of supporting data at this point. The sooner people see this they'll see where the bar ought to be set. This is only one example of course.
One of the best ways to get through withdrawal symptoms is Marijuana. When I was getting off some pretty rough mental meds, Marijuana allowed me to keep going.
Yeah at best Biden probably only is in favor of it for textile products and maybe CBD derivatives for medical use. Which mind you is still a massive improvement over damned near every president since it was putlawed but still a woefully insufficient, a solid summary of Biden now that I think about it.
He’s too old. Society has moved beyond him on this and it’s an example of why we need to start electing younger people.
Here's hoping!
Plus this post is literally about her going to the "All The Smokes" podcast and calling for legal weed there. Could not imagine Biden doing
all he's pushing for is reschedule to 3, which means they'll probably go to 2 because fuck you that's why
I figure you're partially joking but they can't really make it 2. The HHS recommendation was 3 and even the DEA kind of has to agree even if they don't want to. It would have been super controversial to do something else, they're mainly supposed to follow it through with the rulemaking process unless they're willing to make a serious case. And even then it would probably be to leave it where it is.
One of the theories going around as to why they added the hearing is that they wanted to take the heat off themselves for the call they've made by really drawing out the public consultation. Like people will be mad at them for following the recommendation so they want to make a big show of the fact they're listening to concerns etc.
Hopefully Harris can take some stronger action or legalize through executive order or something. Schedule III is better but it's then in the same class as ketamine. No judgement of people who like ketamine but COME ON
Interesting, didn't know that about the process, TIL. So am I reading you right that they're effectively locked into reschedule to 3 no matter what now due to the HHS recommendation? Or do they still have the option to just not change a thing as well?
Yeah my understanding is that since HHS said "the science suggests it should be in 3," the DEA would have a bit of a challenge making any other rule. The schedules (theoretically) tell you what the addiction risk and medical value of a substance is, with lower risk & more effective medicine being the least restricted. So since HHS made that determination and the DEA are not scientists, it would be kind of wild for them to try to argue with that.
I think technically they could propose anything they like, but 2 would never go through because there's no basis for it, and I think even keeping it in 1 would be a difficult sell with Biden having called for the review and the recommendation being what it was. Plus as you said most public comments (and experts) said they didn't go far enough.
Honestly I think they're stuck. They probably can't just come out and recommend descheduling (and going by public statements probably don't want to) but the current position is untenable. So they have to just sign up for the "better but nobody is especially happy" option HHS gave them
One thing I wish I understood more was whether Harris could just legalize through an executive order. Biden (and now Harris) said nobody should go to jail for weed but schedule III does not solve that problem at all.
The classification problem will lead to the DEA gaining control of all the dispensaries in every state.
Maybe I'm being alarmist, but rescheduling Marijuana is worse than leaving things alone. Oversight by the DEA is the wrong way to go.
Yeah I wouldn't say alarmist but this is likely a non issue. Under the current system, every legal state is breaking federal law in a bunch of ways, but the DEA and other agencies have not acted. Technically putting it in schedule III would mean it could be treated like other substances in that schedule, available only with FDA oversight, but that is not likely. Basically everything has been totally hands off so far, so it's very unlikely that the government reducing the level of control of cannabis would lead to agencies increasing their control.
The biggest threat at the moment imo is a Trump presidency, but based on his comments about Florida's ballot initiative, his "change with the wind" opinion is currently also in favor of not sending people to jail for it.
The public comments were overwhelmingly in favor of full deschedule/legalization, but all he's pushing for is reschedule to 3, which means they'll probably go to 2 because fuck you that's why
The Lesser Evil Party in a nutshell 😮💨
Granted, it's of course still a MUCH lesser evil than the American Fascist Party, but fucking HELL! Your very bleak guess is probably the best case scenario with these fuckers!
Schedule 3 for weed is a joke when Xanax and Ambien are schedule 4
It’s moving slowly because the DEA and police want it to stay illegal because that’s where half their funding comes from
Rescheduling is a lot more complicated than that. The president can not just wave a wand and make it legal. Congress could pass a law doing so, but they are not going to do that. The other way is via the Controlled Substances Act which is, to put it mildly, is a cluster fuck.
In a nutshell, administrative rescheduling begins when an actor—the Secretary of Health and Human Services or an outside interested party—files a petition with the Attorney General or he initiates the process himself. The Attorney General forwards the request to the HHS Secretary asking for a scientific and medical evaluation and recommendation, as specified by 23 USC 811(b-c). HHS, via the Food and Drug Administration conducts an assessment and returns a recommendation to the Attorney General “in a timely manner.” The Attorney General, often through the Drug Enforcement Administration, conducts its own concurrent and independent review of the evidence in order to determine whether a drug should be scheduled, rescheduled, or removed from control entirely—depending on the initial request in the petition.
If the Attorney General finds sufficient evidence that a change in scheduling is warranted he then initiates the first stages of a standard rulemaking process, consistent with the Administrative Procedures Act. During rulemaking and consistent with Executive Order 12866, if the White House—through the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of information and Regulatory Affairs—determines the rule to be “significant,” it will conduct a regulatory review of the proposed rule—a very likely outcome given the criteria in the EO.
FYI, Biden already initiated this process to reschedule marijuana in 2022. At this point, it has been reviewed and the Attorney General has submitted a rule change to the DEA. They will have a public comment period which they will no doubt drag out as long as possible. If approved, marijuana will be reclassified at the same level as steroids (schedule III). It is disappointing that Biden only requested changing the schedule rather than descheduling it all together. Not ideal, but a hell of a lot better than now.
So technically, the president could order the people he is in charge of to deschedule the drug and to do it immediately by everyone agreeing that the change is not significant.
If they refuse he could just keep firing people until someone agrees.
Nope, the president doesn't have the legal authority to give that order. He has the legal authority to order them to consider the question, which is the process that's going on.
Right but he he has the power to fire them, or order someone else to fire them.
The law requires certain time frames for comment periods and he cannot just ignore those. He also cannot just fire anyone he wants. That is one of the things Project 2025 includes. Giving the president to fire any federal employee at will is a bad idea.
The only immediate thing he might do is issue an executive order making Marijuana a very low priority offense and telling DoJ to direct limited enforcement and prosecution resources elswhere.
Well I’m sure the persons in question will be highly motivated to follow through and expedite the process with seal team six accompanying them to work every day