Staff Reports
Kamala Harris has decided to take a strong stand in favor of marijuana legalization, which is quite amusing considering her own illustrious history of being a top enforcer of cannabis-related laws. While Harris now insists that “people should not be going to jail for smoking weed,” it’s hard to ignore her previous role where she oversaw nearly 2,000 convictions for marijuana offenses. Talk about a classic case of “do as I say, not as I did.”
During a friendly chat on the All The Smoke podcast, the Vice President was clear that it is high time to legalize marijuana and stop what she calls “criminalizing” weed. It seems the winds of political correctness have blown her way, and now she finds herself in the position of championing legalization. But isn’t it a bit rich coming from someone who actively put thousands behind bars for the very same behavior she now wants to decriminalize?
Harris’s newfound passion for legalization comes on the heels of social media posts claiming, “no one should go to jail for smoking weed.” Perhaps she should have been reminded of this position during her time as the district attorney of San Francisco. It’s a bit like a cat suddenly deciding it’s against hunting mice after years of being a mouse’s worst nightmare. One can’t help but side-eye such a dramatic pivot.
Critics have pointed out that during her tenure as California’s attorney general, Harris faced heated challenges regarding her track record on marijuana. Former representative Tulsi Gabbard, for instance, took Harris to task during a Democratic debate by highlighting her role in incarcerating more than 1,500 individuals for marijuana violations. While Gabbard may have taken some liberties with the numbers, it’s worth noting that Harris had significant power to influence which cases got pursued—the fact that the count was as high as almost 2,000 is an impressive (albeit troubling) statistic.
Kamala Harris Supports No Jail Time ‘for Smoking Weed’ Despite Jailing Nearly 2,000 People for Marijuana Offenses https://t.co/f0dWOWzpuv
— SamanthaJBryant (@SamanthaJBryan1) September 30, 2024
The irony of Harris’s current stance is deliciously entertaining. She wants to wave a magic wand and rewrite history as if her office wasn’t instrumental in locking people up for offenses that she now believes shouldn’t even carry legal consequences. Maybe her comments are less about a heartfelt change of mind and more about a calculated political strategy to align with the current trends and social movements. Nonetheless, it does raise eyebrows when a leading advocate for change was also a key player in the system she now claims to oppose.
