VP Harris insists ‘nobody’ should go to jail for pot — despite record of convictions as DA
Vice President Kamala Harris declared during a late-night TV interview Monday that “nobody should go to jail for smoking weed” — without being called on her record as San Francisco’s district attorney, when she oversaw thousands of marijuana convictions.
The veep was asked on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” about President Biden announcing the pardon of around 6,500 people convicted in federal court of simple marijuana offenses last week.
“Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed, right?” Harris told host Seth Meyers, before adding that governors across the country should follow Biden’s example.
“We are urging governors and states to take our lead and pardon people who have been criminalized for possession of marijuana,” she said to cheers from the audience.
“Ultimately, though, as if with so many issues, if Congress acts, there is a uniform approach to this. But Congress needs to act,” the VP added. “We’re 29 days away from the midterms. Ask who you’re voting for, where they stand on this. And I encourage you to vote accordingly.”
Meyers did not pursue Harris’ record of convictions in California during the softball interview that also touched on the topic of emojis.
A 2019 analysis by the San Jose Mercury News found that Harris oversaw 1,900 pot convictions — a rate the newspaper said appeared to be higher than her predecessors’.
Harris didn’t come out in favor of legalizing marijuana until May 2018, when she was already a likely presidential hopeful.
When she was running for California attorney general in 2010, Harris opposed a reform initiative that would have legalized the recreational use of pot.
“Spending two decades in courtrooms, Harris believes that drug selling harms communities,” her campaign manager Brian Brokaw said at the time. “Harris supports the legal use of medicinal marijuana but does not support anything beyond that.”
In February 2019, then-Sen. Harris told radio host Charlamagne tha God during an interview on “The Breakfast Club” that she had smoked pot.
“I have and I did inhale,” she responded.
During the interview, Harris, the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants, was asked if accusations that she still opposed legalizing marijuana were true.
“That’s not true. Look, I joke about it, I have joked about it. Half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?” she said.
Recreational use of marijuana is legal in 19 states and the District of Columbia, while 37 states allow weed to be used medically, even though cannabis remains illegal on the federal level.
