Marijuana reform advocates hope Vice President Kamala Harris eventually helps influence President Joe Biden to warm up to potential federal legalization.
But apparently those discussions haven’t yet taken place, even as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York gets closer to introducing a comprehensive marijuana reform bill.
“We haven’t yet taken that on,” Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle.
“Honestly, right now, we’ve been focused on getting people food, helping them stay in their apartments or in their homes, getting kids back to school, getting shots into arms,” Harris said.
“That has been all-consuming.”
Schumer said in a recent interview with Politico that he wants Biden to have some time to study the issue.
“But at some point, we’re going to move forward, period.”
Harris, a former San Francisco prosecutor and California attorney general, was criticized for overseeing offices that prosecuted hundreds of marijuana-related convictions.
But as a U.S. senator, she supported federal marijuana legalization and co-sponsored the SAFE Banking Act, which would allow financial institutions to serve cannabis businesses without fear of federal prosecution.