Vice President Kamala Harris on Friday brought together an eclectic group at the White House to discuss marijuana reform, a little more than one week after President Joe Biden touted the thousands of people he has pardoned for "mere possession" of the drug during his State of the Union address.
“Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed," Harris said during brief remarks to the press at the top of Friday’s event.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, Grammy nominated rapper Fat Joe, White House Director of Public Engagement Steve Benjamin and people who received pardons for previous marijuana convictions all joined the vice president in the West Wing’s Roosevelt Room for the roundtable discussion.
Harris lauded the administration’s work on the issue, including issuing pardons and calling on states to do the same. She highlighted that the White House directed the Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Justice to reassess how marijuana is classified – while delivering a stern message to move quickly.
“I cannot emphasize enough that they need to get to it as quickly as possible,” she said on Friday.
Last year, the Health and Human Services Department recommended to the Department of Enforcement Administration that marijuana should be moved from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance. The DEA has to make a move next for the change to take place.
“This issue is stark when one considers the fact that on the schedule currently, marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin, marijuana is considered as dangerous as heroin, and more dangerous than fentanyl,” she said, calling it “absurd.”
Late last year, Biden pardoned thousands of people who were convicted of use and simple possession of marijuana on federal lands and in the District of Columbia in what marked his latest round of executive clemencies meant to rectify racial disparities in the justice system.
The move built on a similar round of pardons that came in Oct. 2022, just before the 2022 midterm elections. No one was freed from prison under the actions, but the pardons were meant to help thousands overcome obstacles to renting a home or finding a job.
“Far too many people have been sent to jail for simple marijuana possession and the impact is such that, in particular, Black Americans and Latinos are four times more likely, four times more likely, to be arrested – arrested for marijuana possession,” the vice president said. “And the disparity is even larger when you talk about the subsect of Black men and Latino men.”
Harris called on states to pardon such offenses as well. Dozens of states have legalized the drug in some form.
The vice president on Friday also noted other steps the administration is taking such as making Small Business Administration loans available to people who were incarcerated, expanding pell grants to people who are currently incarcerated and directing HHS to educate individuals who are soon-to-be released about the benefits they will be eligible for.
The Associated Press contributed to this report