No one should go to jail for “smoking weed,” says Vice President Harris at the White House

By Stephanie Kelly

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Friday “no one should have to go to jail for smoking weed” as she met with rapper Fat Joe and other people pardoned for marijuana convictions to discuss the issue.

Harris added that “far too many people have been put in prison for simple marijuana possession.”

President Joe Biden, who is seeking a second four-year term in November's election, is trying to appeal to young voters, some of whom are dissatisfied with his slow pace of political reforms.

Harris called on the Departments of Health and Justice to accelerate the reclassification of marijuana as less harmful than drugs such as heroin.

“Marijuana is viewed as as dangerous as heroin and more dangerous than fentanyl, which is absurd and blatantly unfair,” Harris said.

Last year, the Ministry of Health recommended that cannabis be reclassified from its current classification as a Schedule I drug to Category III with moderate addictive potential.

The decision now rests with the Justice Department's Drug Enforcement Administration.

Marijuana use is legal in some form in nearly 40 U.S. states, but it remains completely illegal in some states and at the federal level.

Harris hosted a roundtable discussion on Friday with Fat Joe, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, White House Director of Public Engagement Steve Benjamin and others.

More people are incarcerated in the United States than in any other country. One in five of these 1.9 million people are behind bars for drug offenses.

Blacks and Latinos are disproportionately incarcerated, while drug reform enjoys the broadest support among young voters. All voting groups favor Democrats.

Biden, who has at times disappointed activists with conservative views on drug use, nevertheless proposed loosening the treatment of marijuana under federal law and pardoned thousands of people who had been convicted merely of possession of the psychoactive plant.

He made both statements in his State of the Union address last week, the first time a president has used his address to Congress to promote loosening his marijuana policies.

Some activists support full legalization of the drug and criticize the government for firing some employees because of past drug use.

Biden has said racial equality is one of his administration's top priorities. He was elected following widespread street protests over the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020.

The president has taken executive actions, including banning most chokeholds and restricting no-knock search warrants for federal agents, but more sweeping reforms have been stalled or blocked by Congress, disappointing liberal voters.

(Reporting by Stephanie Kelly in Washington, editing by Franklin Paul, Heather Timmons and David Gregorio)