Kamala Harris will host a marijuana reform event with rapper Fat Joe
The roundtable hosted by the vice president will be the administration's first public event on the issue since President Joe Biden talked about it in his State of the Union speech.
Please tell me Fat Joe is Joe Biden. Please god please
🤣 that made me spit
Convenient timing given everything else going on. You know they're really scrambling to get the youth vote when they start talking about nationwide marijuana legalization.
All they seem to do is talk, zero intent behind the words.
The DEA is currently investigating rescheduling marijuana which was prompted by Biden’s HHS doing the preliminary lab work to present to them.
Then Biden has pardoned everyone who was charged federally for possession of marijuana.
And then he urged states to consider doing the same. Just this week, Massachusetts followed through with that.
Obviously he’s doing this to get more voters, but there’s real progress happening and it’s not a reaction to anything recent. This was all indicated during his campaigning.
If the Democrats wanted to do something for the people, they'd really lean into legalizing cannabis at the federal level.
So when is it time to start talking about all the reparations the US owes to the millions of people it victimized throughout it's (so-called) "War On Drugs" terror campaign?
Illinois codified in law when it legalized cannabis that licenses for product development (the grow houses, dispensaries, maunfacture, etc) was supposed to go to the people most affected by the war on drugs. These communities were 90% Black. There's a new dispensary opening by me, and it's ownership is 100% white male lawyers, and they sell nothing but Cresco Labs products, which is run a buncha rich white dudes.
As a white male, I'll have you know that the war on drugs did affect us more than anyone else!
Also the war on women, the war on Christmas, the war on terrorism, the war on freedom, the US Civil War, Edwin Starr's song "War", Angels and Airwaves' song "The War", the war room scene from Dr. Strangelove, Star Wars the movie, Star Wars the missile defense initiative, and the war on belly fat all disproportionately affect we white males more than any other group. Don't you know how we're the most oppressed?
which is run a buncha rich white dudes.
It's the same damn thing here in South Africa - the politicians are constantly talking about "legalizing" marijuana use for the politically-connected (and mostly white) rich people who have the infrastructure to sell it en masse to foreign countries while still leaving enough legalese in there to allow the pig to wage war on the impoverished black and brown folk who farms the stuff.
Ohio did similarly but with the groups. Anyway since it was a ballot measure and not a constitutional amendment and it’s Ohio that money is probably going to cops instead because our state government is like that
The war on drugs created so many problems across multiple generations and multiple continents. Millions is a very low estimate.
So the Biden campaign is running on abortion and pot. Yeah, I'm OK with that.
Don't forget climate, and democracy.
Just like last time
And Genocide
The grid-locked Congress could also make some progress on cannabis reform this year, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer telling reporters last week that the bipartisan SAFER Banking Act — a bill that would expand access to traditional banking and financial institutions for legal cannabis businesses — could get a vote on the floor before the November election.
If Biden declassified it, then there'd be no restrictions on banking...
If a state doesn't specifically have a law making it illegal, declassifying federal would make it defacto legal.
It's honestly that simple, and declassifying it was his compromise four years ago when voters wanted legalization.
He's spent four years looking into it...
And now he's promising again to look into it
Just take the easy common sense win that does zero harm. He keeps fucking up these easy issues.
Well, why finally do it, if promising to do it gets you approval.
For real. They haven't actually done shit yet. All these shills posting articles about Biden ordering the rescheduling prices to begin doesn't mean shit. It's literally the bare minimum he can do.
The DEA will keep it illegal and Biden won't do shit to retaliate, he'll say his hands are tied and the Democrat trash here will actually defend him for it.
He wants to wait for election season so voters “remember it.” It’s a fairly common tactic in politics.
He’s already working on it. He’s asked HHS to reevaluate it and they have, affirming that it should be reclassified. It now rests with the DEA
https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/health/marijuana-rescheduling-fda-review/index.html
The president can’t just unilaterally reschedule a drug. He’s got to work within the framework of the controlled substances act, which he’s been doing and is now on the last step to reclassification.
ETA: it also seems you didn’t read the article where it specifically states that Biden ordered the process to reschedule to begin?
Unfortunately for him lots of voters can remember the same promise from four years ago.
He may think waiting four years is a good plan, but some voters are going to wonder if four years from now he'll be bothered to fufil any of this campaigns promises
Especially if it's gets to election day and he's still just "looking into it".
Voters remember shit, and waiting till the last minute often doesn't work out.
It's much easier to just do what you can. There's a palpable hesitancy with Biden, really anyone in their 70s or older. We don't need someone we have a possible chance of getting to do the right thing, we need someone that wants to try as hard as they can to do the right thing
08 Obama happened, and it's literally me the DNC wants to erase from history how well a young person can do with a progressive campaign and it's not just because they have the physical energy to actually be on the campaign trail.
I'm guessing there was nobody more relevant than Fat Joe after Killer Mike became persona non grata and Snoop favors Trump.
At least nobody else willing to stand next to the DARE cop in the auditorium.
It counts as community service ffs.
Eh, that was kind of overblown.
She had more prosecutions than the prior DA, but most weren't jail time, it was just get caught pay a fine.
And it makes sense when that became a thing, people were riskier with it and got caught more.
She's been pro legalization for almost a decade.
They're not doing enough right now, but it's not like she was some hardcore soldier in the drug war.
Biden on the other hand...
https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/senate-bill/3266
He was behind a lot of the early 90s police bullshit that we're still dealing with today.
What's fucked up is it coincided with the same drop in violent crime from banning leaded gas that every country saw. So some people still think that backwards ass shit works Plus, they were usually alive for decades before the ban and exposed to all that lead for decades...
Shit fucks with your brain, especially as you age
I mean it's better than nothing. It's always funny to me how they start doing everything during an election year when they could have done this 3 years ago.
In May 2021, the Drug Enforcement Administration approved licensed facilities to grow cannabis for the purpose of medical research for the first time since 1968. Prior to this, the University of Mississippi was the only institution in the United States legally permitted to grow the plant for that use. Previously, in 2016, an application process was put in place for research growers, but no applications were later approved under the Trump administration.
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.
On December 2, 2022, Biden signed the Medical Marijuana and Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act.
That's how you know they don't actually care and it is all political games.
...tf did killer mike do to become persona non grata?
Would take maybe tops 4 hours for them to draft the executive order to make that shit legal overnight. But, cool I guess?
If she hits a gravity bong on stage, fuck it, Harris can take the wheel.
Yeah they dangle this carrot in front of us every 4 years but never do a god damn thing about it.
lol this will backfire. Even if they committed to it “after the election” no one will believe it, and trump and co could just be like god empeoreor trump has declared he will legalize weed on day one of his dictatorship and the fucking morons that follow him would actually suddenly be pro legalization
If it’s legalized at a federal level then we better get a “We did it Joe!” video (like we got after winning the election)
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Harris’ main portfolio includes reproductive health care, gun violence and voting rights, but she has consistently amplified criminal justice reform since her years as a district attorney in California.
In his State of the Union Thursday, Biden said that he had directed his “cabinet to review the federal classification of marijuana,” adding that he is also “expunging thousands of convictions for the mere possession, because no one should be jailed for simply using.”
"Friday’s engagement will build on the Vice President’s efforts to uplift the historic actions the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to ensure everyone has access to opportunity, including by making the criminal justice system more just.
While young people identify plenty of issues that are most important to them — including abortion access, the economy and gun violence — cannabis reform is also a significant concern.
The White House announced its major initiatives on the topic, including directing agencies to evaluate rescheduling the drug, just weeks before the 2022 midterm elections.
The grid-locked Congress could also make some progress on cannabis reform this year, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer telling reporters last week that the bipartisan SAFER Banking Act — a bill that would expand access to traditional banking and financial institutions for legal cannabis businesses — could get a vote on the floor before the November election.
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