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Kamala Harris could end decades of overzealous and brutal policing over minor infractions like pot smoking if she can persuade Joe Biden of the justness of the cause.
In 2016, California voters legalized recreational marijuana and sent Kamala Harris to Washington where she could contemplate her tepid record on cannabis reform. It was, so to speak, weak tea. But between Sacramento and the 2020 campaign trail, Harris turned her Cali past inside out, emerging as the lead sponsor of a Senate bill to end federal prohibition.
Unfortunately, Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell, two white men still fighting 1980s-era drug wars long since lost, continue to support strict federal prohibitions on marijuana consumption. The Kentuckian, now the proud owner of a machete used to chop down illegally cultivated marijuana plants (bestowed upon him by state and federal drug enforcement agents), is the proverbial lost cause.
As for Biden, the Biden-Sanders unity task force came up with a menu of rescheduling, medical-marijuana legalization, and expungement of criminal convictions for users. A Democratic National Convention platform committee charged with finalizing the 2020 platform agenda rejected a legalization plank. (Rep. Barbara Lee of California, a leading legalization voice, voted no with the majority.)
But in September, Biden could get a glimpse of the pressure he’d likely be subject to if elected, if the House decides to put the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE), championed by his vice-presidential pick, to a vote. It aims to be the first liberalization bill to advance from the House Judiciary Committee to the floor of the House. It’s even possible that more than a few Republican members might join their Democratic colleagues in voting for the bill. Two GOP members of the committee, Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida and Tom McClintock of California, voted yes.
If the Justice in Policing Act is an early way forward on stemming police brutality, ending marijuana prohibitions is an appropriate complement. As San Francisco district attorney, Harris pushed for prosecutions in hundreds and hundreds of marijuana cases, but went after fewer low-level offenders. Harris, the state attorney general, either opposed early ballot legalization efforts outright, or, as the momentum for legalization grew, sat out the debate. But despite the criticism Harris received on the Democratic primary campaign trail and during the debates from the likes of Rep. Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, she was the most progressive on reform of the women vying for the vice-presidential slot (a conversion that may have been sparked by Jeff Sessions’s attempt to resuscitate the War on Drugs, according to a Rolling Stone report). California also has had medical marijuana since 1996 and two years of legal recreational marijuana. Marijuana advocates also continued to push lawmakers like Harris at home and in Washington.
Harris’s ability to nudge Biden down a path to cannabis redemption may run through the MORE Act, co-sponsored with Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey (Harris signed on to his earlier Marijuana Justice Act), Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Ron Wyden of Oregon. The legislation would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act; require federal courts to expunge prior convictions and conduct resentencing hearings; and allow offenders to request that their records be wiped clean.
It would create three grant-funded programs powered by a 5 percent sales tax to provide job training, re-entry services, youth recreation, substance use treatment, and other programs; small-business loans to groups facing significant social and economic hurdles; and facilitate licensing and employment opportunities for people disadvantaged by drug control enforcement. It would also remove some of the more pernicious regulations that affect families, including the loss of public benefits like housing and imperiling a person’s immigration status.
Marijuana could take center stage on the House docket before the 116th Congress adjourns—even during a pandemic—since cannabis is a proven revenue generator for state and local government and could stem some of the fiscal pain of the pandemic recession. Cannabis taxes raised nearly $2 billion in 2019, an increase of about $500 million, or more than 30 percent, compared to the previous year. The sector also is projected to generate up to 300,000 new jobs by the end of the year alone, an increase of about 50 percent over 2019. With small businesses decimated nationwide, a liberalization of existing laws would enable some municipalities to replenish depleted coffers with tax revenues (especially since many municipalities designated marijuana businesses as essential during the pandemic) and create jobs.
But even if MORE arrives on the House floor and passes, it’s more than likely to go straight to where Democratic legislation goes to die: Mitch McConnell’s spam folder. Nevertheless, congressional foot-dragging means states will continue to march to adopt liberal policies. Arizona, Montana, and New Jersey have November ballot questions. (The Grand Canyon State is expected to pass its legalization measure; marijuana advocates collected more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.)
Marijuana could take center stage on the House docket before the 116th Congress adjourns—even during a pandemic—since cannabis is a proven revenue generator for state and local government.
One other challenge is that as states have legalized marijuana, large corporations and private equity firms see dollar signs. Increasingly, big financial interests are crowding out locally owned pot shops. Marijuana could become one more highly concentrated industry, and federal legalization advocates should be alert to that risk. It would be ironic in the extreme if a drug reform cause pioneered by anti-establishment hippies ended up increasing corporate domination of society.
On the enforcement front, the raging coronavirus plus the aftermath of the George Floyd protests should have produced a reordering of policing priorities. According to the Marijuana Law, Policy & Reform blog, Philadelphia and Austin did ratchet down marijuana-related arrests, as have smaller jurisdictions like Jay County, Indiana. Inexplicably, New York has stepped up enforcement, urging corona-weary residents to “Call 911 to report marijuana smoking in progress,” even though cannabis was decriminalized in 2019. (Violations carry financial penalties of $50 to $200.)
The New York case is particularly troubling given that there has been little optimism on policing, even as states edge toward legalization or decriminalization. An ACLU report published earlier this year found that in 2018, there were 700,000 marijuana arrests nationwide—more than 40 percent of all drug-related arrests and more than for all violent crimes combined. Racial disparities continue, with African Americans more likely to be apprehended despite usage rates that are similar to whites’.
The election brings even less clarity: A Trump victory means more of the same from the administration hell-bent on runaway authoritarianism. A Biden win may set off a tumult of marijuana reform pressure from racial-justice advocates, focusing on ending unwarranted police activities and arrests, stimulating economic empowerment, and reinvigorating cash-strapped cities. Kamala Harris could end decades of overzealous and brutal policing over minor infractions like pot smoking if she can persuade Joe Biden, who professes an interest in racial healing, to embrace MORE and drop his anachronistic, drug-warrior guise to clamp shut this chapter of the ruinous War on Drugs.
