Politics
Kamala Harris Holds The Trump Card On Cannabis Despite Her Opponent’s Latest Comments (Op-Ed)
“America has already seen the very pro-weed version of Harris, and she is awesome. Trump’s new opinions are more of his say-anything and do-nothing style.”
By Chris Goldstein, Federal Marijuana Pardon Recipient
Getting an inside view of the White House was not what I expected this year. Three trips so far at the invitation of Vice President Kamala Harris have changed my perspective. I’ve borne witness to a time of profound change, and the experiences have cemented a new optimism in me.
Harris fully supports national cannabis legalization, and she’s been instrumental in the first presidential administration to work directly on marijuana reform. This is a huge leap forward for the country.
My first visit, in March, was all business: a candid, roundtable discussion about cannabis in the Roosevelt Room. There was a gang of press for the first five minutes and some powerful on-camera comments. After the doors closed, I saw the experience, eloquence and passion in Harris’s approach to cannabis policy. She absolutely understands the nuances of state versus federal law, and she feels the urgency for a major shift.
I also saw how effectively she ran the room. Harris’s style is elegant authority, and she leads with focused engagement. Rapper Fat Joe, who was at the meeting, says he drops everything any time Harris calls. The ACLU was at the table. That’s the first time I saw the kind of teamwork that Harris inspires. It’s definitely her superpower.
Harris was the leading sponsor of the MORE Act in the U.S. Senate, a bill that would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act completely in a process known as descheduling. The latest version of that bill has more than 90 co-sponsors in Congress today.
Harris’s vision for the country is in direct contrast to former President Donald Trump, who maintains his backhanded yet steadfast support of federal prohibition.
Sure, Trump said he would vote in favor of Florida’s local adult-use ballot initiative. And Trump’s latest comments suddenly support rescheduling cannabis to Schedule III, alongside codeine and ketamine. Of course, Trump’s position simply ignores federal cannabis prohibition overall. His plan seems to favor continuing the senseless conflict between different levels of government.
Kamala Harris has worked for years to end federal cannabis prohibition, she was leading sponsor of the MORE Act that would deschedule the plant.
Donald Trump newly supports Schedule III…which would extend the conflicts between state and federal law.
— Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) September 9, 2024
Given four years to do something about marijuana policy, Trump did nothing. In my view, he gets zero credit for putting a pen to a Farm Bill with provisions legalizing hemp that passed like clockwork and issuing a few vague signing statements.
Let’s remember that somehow Trump personally avoided proactively saying the words “marijuana” or “cannabis” during his term. Did he forget about America’s most popular flower?
I also saw the Trump version of politics in person. Back in 2017, I was getting escorted out of Jeff Sessions’s office and blocked on social media by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R). Those two infamously anti-weed guys were key players in Trump’s administration, and there was little hope in that crew making any progress.
Even clemency was tough in those days. Trump authorized just 143 total pardons, with most (116) issued in January 2021 to his political allies. The U.S. pardon attorney was a former prosecutor who whittled the staff down to a skeleton crew of nine during Trump’s term.
The Biden–Harris White House changed the game in October 2022 by issuing the first mass pardons for federal marijuana possession. After a clarifying statement, thousands of people across the country with a permanent criminal record over small amounts of weed were granted presidential clemency.
The federal weed pardons are for the absolute lowest level of offenses, and the exact number of recipients is annoyingly difficult to tabulate. However, certificates can be requested, and one has my name on it. So, I can personally attest to the immense healing that happens in getting one.
Today, the Office of the Pardon Attorney is led by a career defender with a staff of more than 40 dedicated to that important work. Rejuvenating that office is part of the Biden–Harris administration’s dedication to clemency overall.
Harris also helped take the White House marijuana effort around the country, urging governors to issue state-level pardons. Some answered the call in a big way. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D) in 2022 was among the first, and even Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy (D), who at first opposed legalization in her state, followed suit earlier this year.
Then there’s the scheduling review. The Biden–Harris presidency is the first to make an executive action to try and actually change federal marijuana laws. Still, the administrative process is onerous and takes years to complete.
So far, there’s been a very healthy public debate, and Attorney General Merrick Garland has issued a “regulation to reschedule” proposing to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III.
The Biden administration’s action is what Trump is alluding to continuing in his new comments.
Of course, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has successfully battled back sixteen previous administrative marijuana rescheduling attempts. There are also no whole plants in Schedule III, and nothing in Schedule III is sold over the counter without a prescription.
Ultimately, rescheduling is not really the correct move anyway, according to everyone from longtime cannabis activists (including yours truly) to reports from the Congressional Research Service. In fact, more than 43,000 public comments were recently sent to DEA, with the resounding majority calling for descheduling cannabis.
So, what’s next? Hopefully only good things for the vast community around the most economically important plant in the United States. Because the next president is likely to play an even more historic role in federal weed policy.
Donald Trump has a sparse record of talking about marijuana in the waning days of elections and did nothing with his executive power. There is no record of him personally interacting with cannabis. Trump maintained federal prohibition.
Kamala Harris has a years-long record of working to equalize cannabis consumers and businesspeople by addressing past injustices, and she’s been a leader in the fight to deschedule the plant under federal law.
Tens of millions of Americans—of every political background—consume cannabis every day. Harris had the courage to break stigmas back in 2019, when asked if she had ever smoked marijuana by saying directly: “I have. And I inhaled. I did inhale.”
America has already seen the very pro-weed version of Harris, and she is awesome.
Trump’s new opinions are more of his say-anything and do-nothing style.
My most recent visit to the White House was an unexpected social invitation: fireworks on the Fourth of July. I brought my girlfriend and we joined hundreds of other guests out on the South Lawn. Everyone enjoyed popcorn and ice cream with the presidential seal on the wrappers. The cloyed version of red-white-and-blue bunted patriotism wasn’t unappealing, a sentimental treat.
As the sun set, we followed an open path away from the crowd. Behind some immaculately kept hedges we found the delightful garden that continues to provide fresh vegetables and flowers for guests. A few months earlier CBS correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked me where federal marijuana policy was going, and he smiled big when I said the plant would be growing at the White House one day.
Now I know the perfect place for a seedling is that historic garden.
Chris Goldstein is a writer based in New Jersey. For the last 25 years he’s been a cannabis consumer activist. Today, he’s a volunteer regional organizer for NORML in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. From 2005 to 2008, Chris hosted National NORML’s weekly and daily audio podcasts that were top-ranked on iTunes. From 2012 to 2019, he wrote a dedicated weekly column on cannabis for the Philadelphia Inquirer called Philly420 and also created the Marijuana in the News class in Temple University’s journalism department. Chris has worked on legislative and ballot efforts at the municipal, state and federal levels. He helped write Philadelphia’s landmark 2014 ordinance decriminalizing cannabis, and in 2024 he received a presidential pardon certificate for federal marijuana possession.
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