Vice President Kamala Harris will convene a roundtable on Friday to discuss cannabis reform with musician Fat Joe and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, a White House official told CNN, as the administration conducts its review on how marijuana is classified under federal law.
The group attending the roundtable will include people who have received pardons for marijuana-related convictions, the official said.
The roundtable comes as Harris travels the country to rouse the Democratic base about the prospect of voting for her and President Joe Biden a second time. Polling has shown that legalization has had bipartisan support in recent years – though that support has been slow to translate into legislative action.
In 2022, Biden pardoned all prior federal offenses for simple marijuana possession and encouraged all governors to pardon state offenses. The same year, Biden asked US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and the attorney general to begin the administrative process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
It is currently listed as a Schedule I controlled substance – in the same category as heroin.
Biden also mentioned cannabis reform in his State of the Union address last week.
“No one should be jailed for simply using or have it on their record,” Biden said in his address last week.
Harris’ own feelings on marijuana reform have evolved in line with her career.
In a 2019 interview with “The Breakfast Club,” Harris admitted to using cannabis in college: “And I inhaled – I did inhale,” Harris told co-host Charlamagne Tha God in a reference to former President Bill Clinton’s infamous “didn’t inhale” response to a similar question while he was campaigning in 1992.
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