Noah Bierman | Los Angeles Times (TNS)
WASHINGTON — Vice President Kamala Harris glanced up from her prepared speech in the White House’s fancy Roosevelt Room this month to ensure that the journalists present could clearly hear her: “Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”
Harris’ “marijuana reform roundtable” was a powerful reminder of how the politics have shifted for a former prosecutor who was raised in the “Just Say No” era of strict drug enforcement. As President Biden seeks crucial support from young people, his administration is counting on marijuana policy as a potential attraction.
Biden made similar comments to Harris’ in this month’s State of the Union address — although the 81-year-old president used the term “marijuana” instead of “weed.” The administration is emphasizing its decision to grant clemency for marijuana possession as it rushes to have cannabis reclassified under the Controlled Substances Act before Biden faces voters in November.
“What’s good about this issue is it’s clean and it’s clear and it cuts through,” said Celinda Lake, one of Biden’s 2020 pollsters who also works for the Coalition for Cannabis Scheduling Reform, an industry group, along with Democratic organizations supporting Biden’s reelection. “And it’s hard to get voters’ attention in this cynical environment.”
The challenge is significant. Biden is viewed favorably by only 31% of people ages 18 through 29, much worse than he fares with other age groups, according to a recent Economist/YouGov poll. Though he leads former President Trump by 21 percentage points in that age group, he needs a high turnout to repeat his 2020 formula. Biden’s age probably has played a role in alienating a group that is both essential for Democrats and historically harder to galvanize than older voters, who more consistently show up at the polls.
What’s more, the biggest step Biden is taking is incremental and not in his full control. The president wants regulators to move marijuana from a Schedule I classification under the Controlled Substances Act — the most restrictive category of drugs that also includes heroin — to Schedule III, a still highly regulated group of drugs that includes anabolic steroids.
That decision is now under review by the Drug Enforcement Administration, which has historically resisted looser drug laws and usually taken many years to review such rule changes within the law, which has been in effect since 1971.
Even if the DEA agrees, it will not mean marijuana is legal at the national level, something that frustrates some cannabis advocates.
“In the year 2024, it’s fair to expect more from a Democratic president,” said Matthew Schweich, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a nonprofit trying to loosen laws at the local, state and federal levels.
Schweich said he worries about Trump returning to office but believes Biden has done the “absolute bare minimum,” missing a political opportunity to push for legalization in Congress and to advocate for the complete removal of marijuana from the controlled substances list, which Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and 11 other Democratic senators urged in a January communication to the DEA.
Trump, whose government vowed federal enforcement against localities and states that had legalized marijuana, is unlikely to gain support from legalization advocates.
Research done by Lake for the industry indicates that even the small step Biden is seeking could potentially increase his approval by up to 9 percentage points with younger voters in battleground states. However, it’s not certain how this would play out.
A campaign aide, who wishes to remain anonymous, said marijuana policy is one of several issues the campaign believes will motivate young people — important but not as prominent as top concerns including college affordability, reproductive rights, the economy, climate and healthcare.
The campaign advises against treating young people as a single group, pointing out that they care about various issues and tend to see connections between them. Democrats, through various methods including social media influencers and a newly initiated campus outreach program, are attempting to make the broader case to young people that Biden is fighting for fairness and change while Trump is looking backward.
They point out that young voters were crucial not only in Biden’s 2020 election but also in the 2022 midterm elections, when concerns over democracy and abortion rights helped the party perform better than expected.
Overall support for legalization is now at 70%, the highest recorded by Gallup, which began polling the question in 1969, when just 12% of Americans favored legalizing marijuana. The substance is legal in 24 states and Washington, D.C., for adults, and a total of 38 have made it legal for medical use, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a legalization advocacy group.
The administration has presented its marijuana agenda as part of its broader efforts to change other criminal sentencing laws and to improve job and business opportunities for people who have spent time in jail or prison.
Lake argues the two efforts combined could help Biden with Black men, another group where he has lost significant support since winning election in 2020.
Padilla said he still gets asked about marijuana regulations regularly, even though California was the first state to pass a medical-use law in 1996. “It resonates with a lot of people,” he said.
In practical terms, reclassifying marijuana changes little. Federal penalties would remain the same, though the Justice Department has for decades treated most marijuana crimes as low-priority prosecutions. It would remain illegal to transport pot across state lines, meaning access to banks and financial markets will remain a hurdle, even for companies operating in states that have legalized pot.
The biggest difference is that scientists and doctors could more easily study the drug for medical uses, something that is now practically banned. Such a change could open the door for greater acceptance. It also would lower tax burdens for the industry in states where it is legal, by allowing deductions for ordinary business expenses that are currently prohibited by the Internal Revenue Service.
Banks and credit card companies may not immediately remove restrictions on marijuana transactions, but they could do so if Treasury Department regulators decide to address the issue, according to attorney Shane Pennington, who specializes in the Controlled Substances Act and represents industry clients.
In October 2022, Biden suggested reassessing the status of marijuana, a process that typically takes more than nine years on average, according to Pennington. In August, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended reclassifying it as Schedule III, which is the first step towards a change. A DEA spokesperson stated in an email that the agency would not discuss the issue while it's under review.
According to Pennington, the order coming directly from the president means we are in uncharted territory, even though the process usually takes a very long time.
During her roundtable discussion on marijuana reform, Harris displayed her impatience.
She emphasized the urgency of the situation and the need for a resolution based on their findings and assessment.
The accelerated nature of the process could subject the administration's actions to additional scrutiny and likely lawsuits.
Kevin A. Sabet, a former marijuana policy advisor in the Obama administration who now leads an anti-legalization group, pointed out that Biden’s Health and Human Services Department released its initial recommendation at 4:20 p.m., a slang term for weed smoking time, highlighting the political aspect of a typically formal regulatory process. He contended that the decision was poorly formulated and could violate U.S. treaty obligations.
However, Sabet also concurs with advocates that Biden could have taken more extensive action.
Sabet, who leads the group Smart Approaches to Marijuana, believes that the president aims to enjoy some of the benefits of being open to these ideas without actually endorsing legalization.
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