Kamala Harris: Nobody Should Be Jailed For Smoking Marijuana · Global Voices

U.S. vice president said today that “no one should be imprisoned for smoking, ” at a meeting she had with rapper Fat Joe and others who were pardoned for offences concerning marijuana use. Kamala Harris pointed out that “excessively many people were sent to prison for mere possession of marijuana”. President Joe Biden, who seeks his re-election in November, tries to attract new voters, some of whom appear dissatisfied with his sluggish reforms on this issue. Harris called on the health ministry and the justice ministry to speed up the reclassification of marijuana, describing it as less harmful than drugs such as heroin. “Weaning is considered as dangerous as heroin and more dangerous than fentanyl, which is absurd, not to say apparently unfair,” he commented. The Health Ministry last year recommended that cannabis be transferred from category 1 to class 3 of drugs, which means it will be considered as having moderate chances of causing addiction. The final decision is left to the Department of Justice’s DEA. Nearly 40 States have legalized marijuana use in some form. But it remains illegal in the rest and at federal level. Harris organized a roundtable discussion with Fat Joe, Kentucky governor Andy Bessir, White House officials and others. Today in the United States, 1.9 million people are being held in prison. One in five inmates were convicted of drug-related offences.