Recent developments around cannabis reform as the 2024 election approaches have quite a few heads spinning. Though now, as of Monday, cannabis reform advocates are likely scratching their heads. It seems that in Vice President Kamala Harris’s newly launched campaign issues page, there is no mention of marijuana policy, reported by Marijuana Moment.
The Harris campaign site outlines the vice president’s platform on various issues like taxes, health care, affordable housing and women’s issues, among others. It even touches on drug policy, noting Harris’s commitment to fighting the opioid epidemic and fentanyl-related deaths by making naloxone — an overdose-reversal drug — available over the counter.
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Despite previous advocacy for marijuana reform, and lots of it, cannabis policy is conspicuously absent, reports the outlet, which is odd in that marijuana reform is clearly an issue that has become increasingly popular in national debates. Not to mention the recent pop cannabis enjoyed when Harris’s arch-rival Donald Trump came out in support of federal marijuana rescheduling on Sunday night and declared himself all in with Florida’s legalization amendment, to be decided in a November ballot.
This Trump shift on weed reform is important regardless of whether it’s a “brazen flip-flop” as the Harris campaign labeled his initial Labor Day weekend announcement about the topic.
At this point, it almost doesn’t matter that the Biden-Harris administration successfully distinguished itself from Trump’s approach to drug policy, which until recently was relatively unknown except for his comments about executing drug dealers. One has to wonder whether the Biden team talked a bigger game than it was intending to play. And, judging by Harris’s failure to mention her cannabis policy position in her campaign page, maybe there’s no game at all.
As polling indicates growing support for cannabis legalization, among Democrats as well as Republicans, Harris’s decision to leave out the issue could cost her key voter support. Trump’s newfound cannabis stance may resonate with advocates of marijuana reform who are willing or able to overlook his other policies.
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