this post was submitted on 16 Mar 2024
857 points (98.1% liked)

politics

23601 readers
2651 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

  1. Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.

Example:

  1. Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
  2. Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
  3. No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
  4. Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
  5. No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

Register To Vote

Citizenship Resource Center

Congressional Awards Program

Federal Government Agencies

Library of Congress Legislative Resources

The White House

U.S. House of Representatives

U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

News

World News

Business News

Political Discussion

Ask Politics

Military News

Global Politics

Moderate Politics

Progressive Politics

UK Politics

Canadian Politics

Australian Politics

New Zealand Politics

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

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.

(page 7) 25 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Oh wow, you maybe might possibly might think about trying to potential maybe do something. And just in time when you need support, how coincidental. End the drug war. Give us healthcare. Provide education and forgive the previous loans taken in order to do so. Fucking do something.

[–] [email protected] 150 points 1 year ago (36 children)

Harris oversaw more than 1,900 marijuana convictions in San Francisco, previously unreported records from the DA’s office show. Her prosecutors appear to have convicted people on marijuana charges at a higher rate than under her predecessor, based on data about marijuana arrests in the city.

As the political winds blow with her I guess. At least it's a positive change.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Or this is what she wants the law to be, that was what she did when her job was to enforce the law that existed back then.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 102 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Eh.

That was when it went from jail to a fine though.

So lots of people stopped giving a shit and started smoking publicly.

And she's been pro legalization for years now.

There's lots of shit to criticize Biden and Harris on, but Harris's time as a DA and her cannabis conviction just isn't a good one.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (34 replies)
[–] [email protected] 52 points 1 year ago (41 children)

“Somebody ought to do something about this ASAP,” says one of the only people on the planet actually capable of doing something about it for the last 4 years. OK.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Biden could order cannabis descheduled ( what his campaign program was) and if agencies don't listen, fucking fire the agency heads and hire someone that will. It literally one of the handful of things he could do himself.

But somehow it's 3.5 years into his first term. And Biden has apparently compromised even more with himself and we won't get his original compromise of descheduling.

When a president acts like this right before their next election, lots of voters rationally stop believing any of their current campaign promises.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

most of the population has the memory of a goldfish, so popular shit like this always waits until the election cycle.

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?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (7 children)

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.

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Your boat is leaking.

Do you either bail out the water, or try to get into port so you can fix it.

Or maybe, you do both. Biden can reschedule…. Today. He could have done it 3.5 years ago.

He hasn’t. He probably won’t.

You’re right that legislation is a more permanent fix. No question there. Doesn’t mean you don’t work the other, faster, solution to get something good enough for the time being done.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Yeah I agree, they’d be better not even bringing it up instead of walking around campaigning on something they should have done years ago.

load more comments (8 replies)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Elections are coming up so it's time to talk about it and do nothing else that would make it happen

load more comments (39 replies)
[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

You know, this is a pretty smart way to approach the political side of this tactically.

Biden can't say deschedule it outright without offending at least some borderline fence sitters and the elder crowd indoctrinated with the old propaganda that made it out to be among the most terrible things.

By having the younger VP who wouldn't really have direct authority to have it changed but is directly I'm the same circles, it gets the idea out there as a 'very strong unofficial stance'.

Next step, the 'cool grandpa' moment when Biden gets to make a gesture for the younger crowd by having it pulled from the schedules. Financially the feds have undoubtedly been eyeing the income (and lack of incarceration costs) brought into states with legal sales for a while and would like a piece of it too.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So lies and deception? I don’t know who is left to deceive when this sounds like the position the WH had two decades ago (when Biden was in Harris’s exact role). Since then the only changes have been brought about by State’s thumbing their nose at the Federal Government. I can honestly say the argument for “State’s Rights” hold more promise for marijuana legalization than Harris’s words.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

Neoliberals dont want elected to help people, they want to get elected.

It's why they can see something like this where a president could do something day 1, but waits four years before doing it, and call it smart strategy. Even when it's not a political.process and the president can do it on their own.

It's why there's always the focus on "stopping by the republican".

That's all neoliberals want to accomplish, get in office and hold on as long as they can.

Progressives want to get elected to help people, and have faith if you help people they'll vote for you.

There's no sane reason for neoliberals to be running the Dem.party on national and state levels, but it's a private party and they get an absolute shit ton of money from billionaires and corporations. So it's very hard to kick their old asses out of power while also fighting off conservative extremist Republicans.

But when the neoliberals wins, nothing gets fixed. Their dogs chasing a car, if they catch it they dont know what to do, so they lay down and wait for another car to drive by.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Progressive idealism is all well and good, but without acknowledging the realities of a highly polarized world and the balances of power in play all it will ever be is idealism, never realized fact.

Many of the broader growths in society didn't have a defining 'flip the switch' moment and instead where the result of small changes that then where the building blocks to bigger ones after the smaller steps where accepted as normal parts of society.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"They wait 4 years to accomplish their policy proposals, this is evidence they never accomplish any policy proposals"

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (5 children)

They wait 4 years to accomplish their policy proposals

Don't act like they've accomplished them.

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (3 replies)
[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just a reminder, until 2014 Hydrocodone was a schedule III drug.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Cocaine and meth are still schedule 2

load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›