“No one should go to jail for smoking weed,” the vice president said.

Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday called on the federal government to move “as quickly as possible” to change the way it officially classifies marijuana, saying that “nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”

“I cannot emphasize enough that they need to get to it as quickly as possible,” Harris said. “We need to have a resolution based on their findings and their assessment. This issue is stark when one considers the fact that on the schedule currently, marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin ― as dangerous as heroin ― and more dangerous than fentanyl, which is absurd, not to mention patently unfair.”

Marijuana is currently listed as a Schedule 1 drug by the Drug Enforcement Administration. That classification designates it one of the most dangerous drugs possible, with no medicinal uses. Other substances in the same category include heroin, ecstasy and LSD. Marijuana advocates have been pushing for years for the federal government to either reschedule marijuana to a different category or deschedule it entirely.

    • nomous@lemmy.world
      1·
      8 months ago

      Care to wager on that?

      I never thought it’d be legal in my deep red midwestern state but I can go to the weed shop and buy it OTC now, they’re packed every time I go. Not sure why you think a sitting president (who’s shown signs he wants to listen the fringes of his party) wouldn’t push for rescheduling, it’s an easy win frankly. I’m pretty cynical and even I’m not that cynical.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        8 months ago

        Care to wager on that?

        I mean, you’ll count his next “we’re looking into it” as full recreational legalization nationwide, so no.

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
            21·
            8 months ago

            Biden crossed a line with me when he circumvented Congress in order to sell weapons to Netanyahu that he knew would be used for genocide. As far as I’m concerned, that defines him in his entirety as a person.

            I do not give genocide supporters the benefit of the doubt.

            Chuck Schumer believes Biden can deschedule cannabis. Biden is saying there’s a long complicated procedure involved.

            Schumer knows how the process works better than you do, and Biden has earned my distrust. I’ll believe that Biden wants to move the needle on Cannabis only after the needle has moved to my satisfaction. Until then, he’s Crime Bill Biden, and he’s prolonging the drug war for the sheer joy of disrupting the communities that the racist drug war was designed to disrupt.

            I don’t care what ridiculous accusations you make about me. If you could defend your ideas in any way, you wouldn’t need to.