“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.

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
    520·
    8 months ago

    Nope, the process to reschedule has been started,

    Which is just another way of saying “we’re looking into it.”

    • LovingHippieCat@lemmy.world
      13·
      8 months ago

      I mean technically yeah, but that’s just updating the citizens that the process is actively rolling. I’d rather be updated that things are happening as opposed to radio silence and thinking the administration is ignoring the issue.

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
        218·
        8 months ago

        They’re pretending that something is happening when it won’t. Some stupid bureaucratic hurdle will come up that they could circumvent if they wanted, but they’ll gleefully announce that their hands are tied.

        And people like you will buy it immediately. I’m sick of the endless lies and bullshit. I’m sick of being ordered to be happy because we’re totally working on something until we get in our own way and stop it again.

        • nomous@lemmy.world
          3·
          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
            26·
            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.