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Vice President Kamala Harris doubled down on her claims that nobody should be jailed for smoking cannabis, despite the fact she oversaw 2,000 convictions as a prosecutor in San Francisco.
Speaking on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Myers, in her during her first late-night television interview since taking office, she was asked what would happen next following President Joe Biden’s announcement last week that he would pardon thousands of people who have been convicted for possessing marijuana.
Harris said the White House would continue to urge governors to take action and suggested Congress should act in order to create a ‘uniform approach’ on the drug.
‘We’ve tried over the years, but let me just start with this: I strongly believe, and the majority of the Americans agree, nobody should to go to jail for smoking weed, right?’ Harris said to cheers and applause from the gathered audience.
Myers didn’t mention her record or follow up during the interview where he questioned her on what Democrats would do in the Senate if they win more seats in the November midterms.
She said the upper house would codify abortion rights after the Supreme Court took away a ‘constitutional right’ by overturning Roe v. Wade.
Harris also accused Texas Gov. Greg Abbott of a ‘dereliction of duty’ by bussing migrants to Democrat-run cities and finished the interview gushing about the ‘quite wonderful’ Joe Biden.
‘I love Joe Biden – and I really do,’ she said. ‘He is very thoughtful and he is very kind. And, you know, so he is thoughtful about, you know, the American people in terms of the work we’ve done. And it’s been historic work’.
Vice President Kamala Harris once against promoted marijuana legalization during an interview with Seth Meyers on his NBC TV show on Monday night
Harris appeared on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Myers, in what was her during her first late-night television interview since taking office in January 2021
‘Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed,’ the vice president repeated
Harris said the White House would continue to urge governors to take action and suggested Congress should act in order to create a ‘uniform approach’ on the drug
LVice President Kamala Harris, backstage with Seth Meyers on Monday night
‘And so we start with that, and the president has been very clear – we’re urging governors and states to take our lead and to pardon people who have been made criminals for possession of marijuana.
‘Ultimately as with so many issues, if congress acts, then there is a uniform approach to this. Ask who you vote for where they stand on this and vote accordingly.’
Harris’ line on the topic was virtually identical to that which she trotted out this weekend during an event in Austin, Texas on Saturday.
‘We are also changing, y’all might have heard that this week, the federal government’s approach to marijuana. Because the bottom line there is: Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed,’ the vice president stated.
While Harris appears to be behind to push to decriminalize the drug now, it is a complete reversal of the position she took when she was California attorney general from 2011 to 2016.
During her time in the role, nearly 2,000 people went to jail for marijuana related crimes, but many of those cases were prosecuted by independently elected county district attorneys.
As state attorney general she also refused to join other states’ efforts in removing marijuana from the DEA’s list of dangerous controlled substances.
While working as a prosecutor in San Francisco, she oversaw 2,000 convictions, with 45 people serving jail time.
Harris led a roundtable conversation on reproductive rights at the LBJ Library at the University of Texas at Austin on Saturday where she repeated the same ‘nobody should be in jail’ line
None of the marijuana convictions Harris’ office secured are still on the books – her successor DA George Gascon expunged all of San Francisco’s 9,300 marijuana convictions dating back to 1975.
Harris actively fought a ballot measure for legalized pot in 2010, and stayed silent when a second ballot initiative passed in 2016.
In 2014, faced with re-election, she was asked about her Republican opponent Rick Gold’s support of pot legalization. She laughed and said Gold was ‘entitled to his opinion.’
While a presidential contender in 2019, Harris joked in a radio interview that of course she smoked pot.
‘Half my family’s from Jamaica,’ Harris said at the time. ‘Are you kidding me?’
The quip did not go over well with the now-vice president’s father, Donald Harris.
‘My dear departed grandmothers (whose extraordinary legacy I described in a recent essay on this website), as well as my deceased parents, must be turning in their grave right now to see their family’s name, reputation and proud Jamaican identity being connected, in any way, jokingly or not with the fraudulent stereotype of a pot-smoking joy seeker and in the pursuit of identity politics,’ he wrote in an unsolicited statement to Kingston-based Jamaica Global Online.
Last week President Biden pardoned more than 6,500 ‘simple’ federal marijuana convictions
‘Speaking for myself and my immediate Jamaican family, we wish to categorically dissociate ourselves from this travesty,’ he added.
Asked by radio host Charlamagne Tha God of ‘The Breakfast Club’ whether she smoked pot in 2020.
‘I have. And I inhaled,’ Harris said. ‘It was a long time ago.’
In addition to expunging marijuana convictions last week, Biden is having the Department of Health and Human Services and Attorney General Merrick Garland ‘review expeditiously’ how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
Marijuana remains a Schedule I drug – alongside heroin and ecstasy, and above fentanyl and cocaine – despite it being legal for medicinal and recreational use in many states.
The DOJ will be tasked with getting individuals a certificate acknowledging their pardon.
Officials also said that no one is currently in prison solely on a marijuana possession charge.
‘Simple’ marijuana possession is considered a Class A Misdemeanor that carries a $1,000 and up to a year in prison for a first-time offender.
White House officials also made clear that no one could be prosecuted with this crime at the federal level following Thursday’s presidential announcement.
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