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.
What do you mean? This is standard political fare… most of the population has the memory of a goldfish, so popular shit like this always waits until the election cycle.
Additionally, an executive order, or changing the chief of the DEA, are probably the least effective ways to handle it. All it would take is a republican administration to undo it all. The way that sticks best is legislation.
Stupid uninformed people…
Most of them vote R or not at all.
But neoliberals refuse to acknowledge people who aren’t ignorant and do care.
“Because what are ya gonna do, vote Republican?”
It doesn’t work.
Maybe we try helping people? Worst case scenario, Dems actually help people when they’re in office.
Isn’t that the whole point of electing Dems? Isn’t that better than just stalling the Republicans destruction of our country?
I completely agree… but that’s how this shit goes. This is definitely one of the situations where both sides pull the same shenanigans. When was the last time you heard Kamala Harris open her mouth? Granted, she’s been busy in a divided Senate, but Dan Quayle was more visibly present during the elder Bush’s administration than Kamala has been during Biden’s. Now she crawls out of the Senate chambers to talk about cannabis? Better late than never I guess.
It’s not like Biden’s administration hasn’t been doing anything useful. But these wildly popular policy initiatives that would do a lot of good often wait for politically convenient moments when it’ll be fresh in the electorate’s memory.
Which is the exact danger of running neoliberals that only care about being elected.
The only thing making this “how shit goes” is both parties get money from the same donors who don’t want anything fixed.
It’s not like how the sun sets everyday and there’s nothing we can do.
So telling people “that’s the way she goes” isn’t helping and is only hurting turnout.
Ok… so how do we run people genuinely interested in fixing it? How do we make this not how shit goes? I can’t argue that it’s really disheartening, but the idea that any party is going to run anyone primarily interested in anything other than getting reelected is absurd. The National Committees for each party would never give them a platform. Running third party is suicide here.
The real change that needs to happen is election reform to provide more transparent campaign financing and moving away from a First Past the Post voting system. That’s how you get people in who can actually fix the issues we have in a constructive and positive manner. It won’t be perfect but it would be helpful. Then we’d have a flourishing of different political parties emerge and voters would have actual choice.
“That’s the way she goes” shouldn’t hurt turnout. The reality is we’re facing the single greatest threat to the basic ideals of the American Republican Democracy. Bigger things are afoot than cannabis policy. I’ll take this political grandstanding from the Biden administration 10 times out of 10 than one more day of a Trump administration.
Undo citizens united would be a great first step…
Something that the majority of Dem voters agree with.
Without those donations and the obligations they come with, neoliberals would stop winning primary elections, and the ones still in office would stop having a reason to oppose progress.
I didn’t read anything else you typed after that, because if you didn’t understand that already, I don’t see how anything else you could have said was in any way relevant