United States (U.S) Vice President, Kamala Harris, at the weekend restated that “nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.”
Information Nigeria reports that this stance is in alignment with that of her principal, President Joe Biden.
Nearly 40 U.S. states have legalized marijuana use in some form, but it remains completely illegal in some states and at the federal level.
The U.S. jails more people than any other country. One in five of those 1.9 million people are behind bars for a drug-related offense.
Biden, who has sometimes disappointed activists with conservative views about narcotics use, has nonetheless proposed easing the treatment of marijuana under federal law and has pardoned thousands of convictions for mere possession of the psychoactive plant.
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Harris, a former state prosecutor in California, had also criticized the federal classification of cannabis as “patently unfair.”
The government currently is reviewing how it classifies marijuana, and Harris has urged that the process be wrapped up as quickly as possible.
Commenting on the issue via X, she wrote, “Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed. We must continue to change our nation’s approach to marijuana while reforming the justice system so it finally lives up to its name.”
Corroborating this also via X, Biden posted: “Sending people to prison just for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.
“It’s time that we right these wrongs.”
He further urged all “Governors to pardon prior state offenses of simple possession of marijuana.
“No one should be in a federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, and no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either.”
