I haven’t heard that, do you have a source? My understanding is that she particularly went after violent crimes while showing leniency and seeking alternatives to incarceration towards non-violent offenses during her time as a prosecutor.
Biden promised the same thing and then didn’t do shit. They clearly like to dangle this carrot without acting on it so they can continue to leverage it for votes.
Decriminalization is not the same as legalization. In terms of legalization, he only supported legalization for medical marijuana which is the process he started. He actually pledged to move it to schedule 2 but has started the process to move it to schedule 3. That process is getting closer for what it's worth. The DEA has really dragged it out but it's nearly at the end with the public hearing in December
From the source that politico links to
he will support the legalization of cannabis for medical purposes
[...]
reschedule cannabis as a schedule II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts.
Yea it’s still full of “is going to” and “process getting closer” stuff. He had 4 full years and didn’t do anything until halfway through his last year specifically so the next election cycle could continue to have a carrot to dangle. That was 3 more years of people having their lives permanently ruined.
If no one is being harmed and all parties have the access to information to know enough about whether or not to consent, and if all parties do consent.
Same is true with health care, minimum wage, sick leave for workers, there are numerous issues that large majority's on both sides support that nothing will be done about because billionaires and corporate donors. She is a neoliberal after all.
There's a couple of different ways she could do it. She could start the descheduling process (doable with existing law, but DEA slow it down like they are with Biden trying to move it to schedule 3). Or if there's a democratic trifecta, she could also push for legislation to legalize it
She did push for legislation like that in 2018 when she was a senator
I'm aware of the avenues by which it could be legalized. I asked what Harris' plan is. If she hasn't released one yet, fine. She only just announced it. But I would like some specifics from her campaign at some point, because Biden's efforts have been disappointing to everyone who considers Biden to be fallible.
Remember when Biden "signaled" he would be a one term president in his first campaign, then proceeded to put the entire country at risk by running again?
Those stories were his aides saying he was considering he might not run again. He never said it publicly.
Here Harris is directly stating publicly she wants it legal federally. It's not a new stance for her. As a senator in 2018 she co-sponsored legislation to make it legal federally
Saying, “we need to” is about as noncommittal as not saying anything at all. That’s like my girlfriend pointing out that the kitchen is a mess and me saying “yeah we really need to do the dishes”.
She has no control over it, the only thing she can do is what Biden did, ask them to investigate it and reschedule it. The executive branch does not make laws. That's on the Senate/Congress. The number of people arrested for marijuana by the federal government isn't the number of people in prison/jail for it. They are/and will be arrested by states. A law must be written to superseed state laws on marijuana... As the president cannot pardon people from state laws.
Vote for new senators/Congress members... The only 1 the president puts in place is the Vice President in the Senate.
Last year Michigan received about 290 million in weed taxes, around 90 went to municipalities and county governments, 100 million to schools, and 100 million to roads.
What are the prices in Michigan? One of the complaints in Colorado is that the prices (for those without red cards, anyway) were set so high that some people were still resorting to the black market.
I would like to reiterate that A LOT of the entrenched Cannabis industry assholes that run the business are pro-Trump. I'm talking well over a majority of the most psychotic Trump supporters I know are directly involved in the interstate Cannabis market. They are even more prone to conspiracy brainrot than the average Yall'Qaeda folks.
I'm sounding the alarm for the millionth time that the Cannabis industry attracts some of the most degenerate, unethical, fucked up people into positions of power. I've said this like 10 times on Lemmy at least, and I always get downvoted into oblivion even though I have more direct experience with the Cannabis industry than 99.9999% of people on earth.
Trust me when I say a lot of these people are fully fucked in the head, and giving them legitimacy is a problem. While I am still 100% pro-legalization, I am also aware of the dark side of that equation as well. There is a lot of exploitation and evil in the industry. It needs to be unionized, and there needs to be common sense regulation that is not captured by the corporations within the industry itself.
Source: Worked in the black, gray, and recreational Cannabis industry for 14 years. Have directly facilitated the sale of tens of millions of dollars worth of Cannabis. Worked with thousands of different people, and hundreds of different vendors over that time.
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
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.
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.
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.
Which is actually the reasonable thing to do here. Marijuana is not something that doesn't have brain-altering side effects. It has pretty clear effects which could impair driving, etc - It doesn't need to be descheduled completely; that would be asinine.
Hempcrete.. Hemp will grow in under 3 months.. You can dry the stalks chip them, and mix with lime.
The plant also provides microgreens, proteins and oil.
The issue is that cannabis regulations are too spotty which is a limiting factor for widespread adoption.
Living in a legal state is fucking AWESOME! The prices dropped to below black market before legalization and flying with a big ol bar of chocolate makes everything so much more tenable.
I hear this sometimes. I also hear some people aren't affected at all by edibles. Strange thing edibles. They work for me, but are somewhat different than how I remember when I used to smoke (I've been using for 20+ years, and simply switched over to edibles 6 years ago). I'm also a little older now so things may be different for other reasons.
Just a reminder that she was responsible for putting thousands of people in jail for petty marijuana crimes.. but you know. Democrats are allowed to change their stance on things... Republicans aren't... right?
What are you talking about. Anyone can write bills. If you want to argue semantics yes she can’t actually call for a vote on a bill but there is nothing stopping her from writing the bill and telling the American people that the plan is out there and the bill just needs to be sponsored by a member of congress.
I have a mixed opinion on this. One the one hand, I don't like drugs because of the dependence it's builds on its users, the harmful medical effects in the long term, and how many people use it while driving or doing other dangerous tasks (for those that cause incapacitation). This isn't just my opinion for marijuana, but for other drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.
However, I don't want people who do use it to end up paying massive fines or ending up in jail, because ultimately they are victims. Of course, the reason this isn't the case for alcohol and tobacco is because of its historical foundation in the US.
So I guess I'm left wondering what is an ideal solution for this problem? My best guess is to decriminalize, but also help improve resources available for treatment of addiction and education of its medical effects.
It's not immediate. There's a process involved in rescheduling or descheduling. Biden started the process to move it to schedule 3 in 2022 which would efficiently make it legal medically. The DEA has been dragging it out as much as possible. There's a public comment period in December
Biden has also not publicly said he wants full legalization, so convincing him to do so may be difficult. As senator, harris pushed for full legalization, so it's clear that she has a very different attitude about it to Biden
No democratic as a presidential nominee has publicly stated they would fully legalize it until now as far as I am aware. Biden has made moves to reschedule, but he has not said something like this