In case of victory, Kamala Harris promises to decriminalize cannabis and erase criminal records

The U.S. vice-presidential debate featured Senator Kamala Harris for the Democrats and Vice President Mike Pence for the Republicans. Among the many topics discussed, Kamala Harris promised that the Biden-Harris administration would decriminalize cannabis in the US at federal level.

«We will decriminalize cannabis and wipe the records of those caught with cannabis,» she declared.

Although candidate Biden has historically resisted calls to ease the war on drugs, he appears to have shifted his stance, telling supporters in May 2019 that «no one should be in jail for smoking marijuana». The Biden understands both the decriminalization of cannabis and social justice measures to repair the damage caused by drug prohibition particularly to the Black and Latin communities.

More recently, Harris reiterated this position on September 14 at an online rally, assuring viewers that a Biden-Harris administration would «end incarceration for simple drug use».

Harris has also recently evolved on the subject. While trying to win the Democratic presidential nomination in 2019, the senator had campaigned to legalize cannabis, telling radio host Charlamagne tha God that cannabis «brings joy to a lot of people».

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Like as we mentioned earlier, But that wasn't always the case. When Harris was running for re-election as San Francisco's district attorney, she boasted of closing legal loopholes that allowed drug dealers to escape prosecution, and boasted of increasing drug dealer convictions from 56% in 2003 to 74% in 2006. But in the Senate, Harris has been a staunch supporter of cannabis policy reform and rarely misses an opportunity to emphasize her desire to legalize or even her past experience with cannabis.

Kamala Harris is the main sponsor of MORE bill (for Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement), which would remove cannabis from the list of controlled substances and erase previous cannabis offenses and a review of penalties in federal cannabis cases. The bill would also establish a support fund for people in communities affected by the drug war and make banking services available to cannabis businesses.

The bill was due to be voted on in September, but the vote has been postponed to an as yet unknown date.

In the wake of Kamala Harris's statement, the stock market shares of cannabis companies rose in value: up to 19.2% for Tilray, and between 10 and 13% for Canopy Growth, Aurora and Aphria.