Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday triumphantly celebrated President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon all federal convictions related to marijuana, calling for further legalization of the drug.
“Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed,” Harris said during an event in Austin, Texas, with for the NARAL Pro-Choice America and Groundwell Fund.
VP HARRIS: "Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed." pic.twitter.com/yHDGeUyQ9e
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) October 9, 2022
But while Kamala Harris served as the Attorney General of California, 1,974 people were admitted for hashish and marijuana convictions, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Harris struggled to demonstrate her change of heart on legalizing marijuana, ahead of her attempted presidential run in 2019.
“Something else it’s past time we get done is dismantling the failed war on drugs — starting with legalizing marijuana,” Harris wrote in her book published in January 2019.
Harris was mocked in 2019 after laughing about her marijuana use during an interview with “The Breakfast Club,” in which she admitted smoking it in college.
“I have. And I inhaled. I did inhale,” she said, adding that “it was a long time ago but yes.”
“I think that it gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy,” she said laughing again.
During the Democrat presidential primary debates, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) pointedly called out Harris for hypocrisy.
“There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” Gabbard said in July 2019.
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