Politicians Tout Marijuana Policy Progress On 4/20 Amid Heightened Expectations About Federal Reform

Public officials across the U.S. are adding their voices to the chorus of marijuana reform supporters celebrating the cannabis holiday 4/20 on Saturday. That includes members of Congress, state legislators and even the president and vice president.

As mainstream brands and advocacy groups promote various campaigns that seek to leverage the popularity of the expanding reform movement, elected officials are touting their work to advance legalization and other policy changes around cannabis.

Saturday might be a time of celebration within the cannabis community, but politicians have increasingly used it as a platform to advocate for more reform as the issue gains more bipartisan support.

Officials at various levels of government are again playing into the culture and using 4/20 to talk about marijuana policy—underscoring how the legalization movement has helped shift cannabis from a controversial taboo to an accepted societal norm.

This year’s holiday also comes amid heightened expectations about federal marijuana reform, as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) works to complete a review into cannabis scheduling under President Joe Biden’s 2022 directive.

DEA is considered a recommendation from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), which wouldn’t federally legalize marijuana, but industry stakeholders are eagerly anticipating the potential incremental reform nonetheless.

Advocates and congressional lawmakers have amplified their push for reform in the days leading up to 4/20, with calls to advance comprehensive legalization, as well as modest proposals to free up banks to work with state-legal marijuana businesses, for example.

For what it’s worth, Congressional Cannabis Caucus founding co-chair Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) predicts that this Saturday will be the “last 4/20 celebration that cannabis will be on Schedule I.”

Here’s what politicians are saying on 4/20 this year:

Members of Congress and national politicians

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. pic.twitter.com/0avI1FmWf9

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 20, 2024

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. pic.twitter.com/AJFmexf8a3

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) April 20, 2024

Happy 420 pic.twitter.com/v5QDGa1s21

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 20, 2024

Legalizing marijuana won’t just get people out of jail and back to work — it can actually help solve America’s drug addiction problem.#Happy420#rfkjr#KennedyShanahan2024pic.twitter.com/JJfondiNEB

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) April 20, 2024

I was so proud to meet with the Marijuana Justice Coalition as we work to reintroduce the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act in the Senate!

We will not stop working together to end the federal prohibition on cannabis and reverse the harms of the War on Drugs. pic.twitter.com/2pQI0iJcVt

— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) April 20, 2024

The failed War on Drugs continues to be a war on people. We need to pass comprehensive cannabis reform that includes restorative justice.

— Sen. Cory Booker (@SenBooker) April 20, 2024

Happy 4/20.

We need to legalize marijuana at the federal level.

— Sherrod Brown (@SherrodBrown) April 20, 2024

It’s not justice to lock up kids caught with an ounce of pot, while hedge fund managers make millions off of the legal sale of marijuana. It’s time for the federal government to legalize cannabis and tackle the legacy of unjust marijuana policy.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 20, 2024

Happy 4/20! Colorado made history and lit up the legal cannabis industry. We set the gold standard, and proved it could be done safely.    I have high hopes for federal legalization, and we won’t stop working until we get there.

— Senator John Hickenlooper (@SenatorHick) April 20, 2024

This 4/20, I’m celebrating the demise of Minnesota Republicans’ shell party, Legal Marijuana Now.

Thanks for nothing — and shoutout to the @MinnesotaDFL for legalization and expungement!

— Tina Smith (@TinaSmithMN) April 20, 2024

Currently, small cannabis biz's are forced to operate w/cash only, making them a serious public safety risk. We need to pass banking reforms like the #SAFEbankingAct, which has passed the House w/bipartisan support multiple times, to help legal cannabis biz's by getting them… pic.twitter.com/26XvZct7q8

— U.S. House Committee on Financial Services (@FSCDems) April 20, 2024

The best way to celebrate 4/20?

Legalizing #cannabis, expunging the records of those imprisoned for using or possessing marijuana, & investing in communities ravaged by the War on Drugs. pic.twitter.com/uz23cNugbP

— Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) April 21, 2024

4/20 is a great day to remember @DEAHQ is FINALLY reviewing softening federal #marijuana regs—but not without years of work from yours truly!#Cannabis shouldn't be Schedule 1. More like Schedule 420. I've worked for years to #LegalizeIt federally & won't stop until it's done. pic.twitter.com/TuDiMXW2nV

— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) April 20, 2024

I'm one of the top advocates for #marijuana legalization in Congress. But on #420day let's remember: as some profit from legalization, thousands of Black men, women & families in my district still suffer from the failed "war on drugs". Legalization should come with justice.

— Steve Cohen (@RepCohen) April 20, 2024

It's no secret that public support for responsible cannabis reform has reached an all-time high. If members of Congress relied on their constituents rather than their personal opinion, they'd see the war over a plant isn't what people want. #StatesReformAct #420 pic.twitter.com/wtDR4rKEko

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) April 20, 2024

As a reminder: Our bill, the States Reform Act, a common-sense initiative puts states in the driver's seat when it comes to cannabis reform, it protects our kids and military veterans. It now sits in a drawer somewhere in the Capitol. #420https://t.co/zd7ym1eFdspic.twitter.com/hbok53Gxji

— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) April 20, 2024

Cannabis justice is racial justice, economic justice, & restorative justice – and the time to act is NOW.

On this 4/20, we need to legalize marijuana, expunge records, & end the War on Drugs that has ravaged Black & brown communities. pic.twitter.com/e2sUCAKERe

— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) April 20, 2024

When it comes to cannabis justice and the War on Drugs, clemency must be part of the solution.@POTUS must use his clemency authority to end mass incarceration and set our communities on a pathway to healing. pic.twitter.com/mH9FPvLViu

— Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (@RepPressley) April 20, 2024

This #420day, remember, 🍃No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. 🍃The cannabis industry is good for our economy & should be equitable

I’m working to bring opportunities to the cannabis industry while helping those harmed by marijuana criminalization…

— Congressman Troy A. Carter (@RepTroyCarter) April 20, 2024

Happy 4/20 to all who celebrate. Today would be a great day for the Biden administration to fully deschedule & legalize marijuana, expunge records, and repair the harms of the failed war on drugs.

— Cori Bush (@CoriBush) April 20, 2024

Happy 4/20! 🌿 Today would be a great day to legalize marijuana, expunge all criminal records for marijuana offenses, & end the racist War on Drugs.

— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) April 20, 2024

Good morning! Today would be a GREAT day to decriminalize and legalize marijuana and invest in the communities of color that have been disproportionately harmed by the war on drugs.

— Rep. Pramila Jayapal (@RepJayapal) April 20, 2024

Legalize cannabis nationwide and expunge records for cannabis-related offenses.

Let’s get it done.

— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) April 20, 2024

It’s high time we legalize cannabis in the United States.

— Rep. Mark Pocan (@RepMarkPocan) April 20, 2024

Let’s be blunt: Sen. Romney’s letter questioning the rescheduling of marijuana doesn’t have a nugget of merit.

It hinges on an outdated court case and its logic implies Tylenol should be regulated under Schedule I.

It’s time for the DEA to deschedule marijuana.

— Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (@RepKamlagerDove) April 20, 2024

It's 4/20, and we are fighting back against the failed war on drugs. pic.twitter.com/B234x6krYF

— Val Hoyle (@RepValHoyle) April 20, 2024

State and local elected officials and political parties

New York is building the nation's most equitable cannabis industry — one that empowers veterans, women, Black & Brown New Yorkers, & those hurt by the war on drugs.   If you’re choosing to celebrate today, visit one of New York's 100+ legal dispensaries: https://t.co/nLcImliKampic.twitter.com/rZ9aFfbJTn

— Governor Kathy Hochul (@GovKathyHochul) April 20, 2024

Rest assured on this 4/20, amidst recent federal seizures of cannabis from licensed distributors in New Mexico, that my administration is working on a strategy to protect New Mexico’s thriving cannabis industry.#cannabis#economyhttps://t.co/Im9HwCNJLy

— Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham (@GovMLG) April 20, 2024

To be blunt: we’re proud to have sparked a new industry when we legalized adult-use cannabis.

— JB Pritzker (@JBPritzker) April 20, 2024

Happy canni-versary, New Jersey!

Tomorrow marks two years since the start of adult-use marijuana sales in New Jersey. Over the past year, we have proudly grown from just over 30 dispensaries to 130 dispensaries statewide. pic.twitter.com/9ernW5RfgU

— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) April 20, 2024

Happy 420, @SenWarrenLimmer. No one rolls like you do. pic.twitter.com/9dJEje08Vl

— Minnesota DFL Party (@MinnesotaDFL) April 20, 2024

Time to end cannabis prohibition! Free the 🌱. Happy 4/20 https://t.co/ymiCstsfyO

— Nikki Fried (@NikkiFried) April 20, 2024

Happy 420 day to all those who are celebrating! pic.twitter.com/wTHFOFF1MC

— L. Louise Lucas (@SenLouiseLucas) April 20, 2024

International politicians

Heute wünsche ich vor allem viel Freude beim Feiern des ersten legalen #420day! Ab morgen geht der Einsatz weiter für eine rasche Anpassung des THC-Grenzwertes für den Straßenverkehr und die Abgabe von #Cannabis in lizenzierten Fachgeschäften. pic.twitter.com/JUZJaUV10R

— Kirsten Kappert-Gonther (@KirstenKappert) April 20, 2024

Happy 4/20. Das ist der Anfang vom Ende der Stigmatisierung. #CanG

— Carmen Wegge (@CarmenWegge) April 19, 2024

Ahead Of 4/20 White House Says Biden Has Been ‘Very Clear’ In Supporting Marijuana Decriminalization, But Admin Is Awaiting DOJ Rescheduling Action

What Happened In VP Harris’s Marijuana Meeting At The White House After Media Left The Room, According To An Activist Who Was There

For Chris Goldstein, being invited to the White House to talk with Vice President Kamala Harris about his marijuana pardon last week represented a pivotal opportunity to do exactly what he was doing at the time of his arrest 10 years ago: advocate for cannabis legalization.

The Philadelphia-based activist had built a career around marijuana reform, and on Friday he found himself inside the hallowed Roosevelt Room in the company of Harris, two other pardon recipients, the governor of Kentucky, rapper Fat Joe and other officials discussing what clemency meant for him—and, importantly, why it’s crucial that the administration go further than the steps it has taken to date.

Few people would have expected Harris herself to take up that call for broader reform during the roundtable meeting that took place once the media was ushered out of the room following brief introductory remarks. Goldstein didn’t expect it either when the vice president declared that “we need to legalize marijuana,” reviving her pro-legalization position that had been muted for the past four years since she joined President Joe Biden’s ticket.

“Saying those words out loud—saying it in the Roosevelt Room—it did feel very meaningful,” Goldstein told Marijuana Moment. “It wasn’t lost on anyone there what was going on in that moment.”

While the vice president privately called for legalization, which followed her public remarks imploring the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to reschedule marijuana “as quickly as possible,” one of the other more intriguing aspects of the meetings was Goldstein’s invite in the first place.

Harris’s office had been reaching out to pardon recipients for months before finally scheduling the meeting, and Goldstein made abundantly clear to her staff that he was an activist who would not shy away from pointing out the inadequacies of simply moving cannabis to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has recommended.

That the vice president’s office moved forward with his invite seemed to signal a willingness to engage in the legalization conversation.

“The president and vice president work very closely together. This event was coordinated at the White House in the Roosevelt Room. I think that is fully coordinated and calculated,” Goldstein said. “It’s a strategic mode—and it’s a positive strategic message to send at the right time.”

While the purpose of Friday’s meeting was focused on the president’s clemency action—which Biden historically touted in his State of the Union address this month—the event seemed to be the latest example of the administration’s efforts to appeal to voters ahead of the November election by promoting an issue with bipartisan popularity, especially among critical young voters.

But for Goldstein, last week’s event was also deeply personal. The grassroots activist affiliated with NORML who was arrested and convicted for possessing marijuana while advocating for legalization on federal land made it all the way to the White House to tell his story and deliver his message directly to the second-highest official in the country.

Marijuana Moment spoke with Goldstein about the meeting, the vice president’s closed-door comments and more on Friday afternoon shortly after he left the White House. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity:

Marijuana Moment: What can you say about the conversations that took place during the private roundtable?

Chris Goldstein: As soon as the doors closed, the vice president made some more colloquial remarks. In fact, Fat Joe and the vice president started a dialogue on a lot of things. The moment where she raised her hands in the air and said, “we need to legalize marijuana”—saying those words out loud, saying it in the Roosevelt Room, it did feel very meaningful, and it wasn’t lost on anyone there what was going on in that moment.

Checked into @WhiteHouse for the #marijuana justice discussion w @VP and @fatjoe@AndyBeshearKYpic.twitter.com/rqoJt2EQSn

— Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) March 15, 2024

MM: Harris sponsored a legalization bill in the Senate, but hasn’t pushed for reform like that since joining the Biden ticket. What does that say to you?

CG: The president  and vice president work very closely together. This event was coordinated at the White House in the Roosevelt Room. I think that is fully coordinated and calculated. It’s a strategic mode. And it’s a positive strategic message to send at the right time.

I think that the president and vice president have done the executive actions that we’ve all been waiting for. But we have seen a lot of missteps in messaging, and today was some very direct and clear messaging.

MM: Did you get the sense that we might begin to hear more of this pro-legalization messaging from the White House in public?

CG: Absolutely. And again, this was is a closed-door discussion, but it was for the internal [White House] media team. I’m sure that clip will be one of the things that they’re going to share. And it certainly was one of the moments that we would like to see come out of that room first.

I don’t think that they’re going to be shy to do it. I think that the the concept of the closed-door room was to give us the comfort zone to have a discussion, but I don’t think that they were trying to keep any of the discussion private, per se.

I hope everyone can recognize the importance of Vice President Harris calling to "legalize marijuana" in a room that Richard Nixon built = huge.

— Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) March 16, 2024

MM: How did it go with the other participants at the meeting?

CG: First, I met the other people who were involved and we were staged together. So I got to meet Andy [Beshear], the governor of Kentucky—that’s how he introduces himself and, quite frankly, he was really impressive in person. He highlighted his own success stories in Kentucky and what he’s been doing on clemency there. So it was interesting to meet the governor of Kentucky—I’m not sure that in any other context I might have.

Fat Joe—I did not expect to be meeting, you know, a really famous rapper who’s got like 6 million followers on Instagram, I’ve got like 600. So that was really interesting. And I have to say, he brought a really interesting vibe to the whole thing, and I have nothing but respect for the guy. He really handled that situation admirably and really advanced our whole discussion. We were glad to have him there.

Before going in and before they told us Fat Joe was going to be there, I was worried about being too buttoned up and boring today. With him there, it made a vibe that made everybody, including Vice President Harris, much more comfortable and it was a much more colloquial discussion.

MM: What stood out to you about the discussion?

CG: The theme of the event was clemency and criminal justice reform. I think what was interesting today is that we went further than saying marijuana—that they were talking about drug war general issues. And you bring up Vice President Harris’s history on this. I think, today, she brought up her own history, too.

I think that that’s something that people have wanted to hear her explain and talk about. And I think that what I heard today isn’t just what people want to hear, but I think it’s a genuine and very sincere story. I don’t want to go too far into it, but for Vice President Harris’s generation, I think the drug war policies, they might want to try and make some corrective action on it.

MM: It did seem like the vice president’s mention of her record as a prosecutor—as part of the drug war system—was notable.

CG: Yeah, and it was a political role, too, because the positions that she held as a prosecutor were elected positions. I think that’s important. She might have done it not just to be a prosecutor, but to be a politician. And I think that, in hindsight, enforcing those kinds of policies may inspire her to do some reforms today. It wasn’t just Vice President Harris, this was President Biden, this was a lot of other people involved with every presidential administration, this a lot of people in Congress.

I mean, honestly, there was a generation of drug warriors that have now grown up and now they’re in the White House and in Congress and in the Senate, and they’re looking back at their histories and saying, ‘Okay, what can we do now instead?’

MM: How did Harris’s point about marijuana legalization come about?

CG: There was a pause in a moment, and it was in context of the discussion of where we’re going with federal policy. You know, she’s talking about the scheduling review. Schedule III is not legalization. Schedule III is not what our community, not what the cannabis community and not what the voting public would recognize as legalization.

Is there any state that would have ever voted to legalize Schedule III marijuana? No, that would have never flown with voters. So voters have gone way beyond Schedule III at the state level. That’s why the idea that that’s an incremental reform we can accept at the federal level really just shouldn’t be in the picture because we’re way past that.

MM: Was there any closed-door discussion about the timeline for the completion of the scheduling review?

CG: No, they seem to be, like us, waiting for the DEA to move. They don’t have an influence on what action or when the DEA could act. I think we’ve been joking around here at NORML that the DEA took like eight years [on prior drug scheduling reviews]. They run themselves out of the clock on any on any request, really, from a reasonable drug policy perspective.

But again, the White House can’t really say. I do have to say that this is the first time the White House has asked for a scheduling review in the right manner so we don’t have a context for how long they might be able to run out the clock.

We all in our mind have a political deadline of November. But the DEA doesn’t have a political deadline like that. They’re not up for election. So, there’s nothing in the rules that say they have to issue it by a certain time. One does feel that that if the president does pursue these executive actions and the DEA doesn’t do anything, you’d hate to presume what could happen. That would just be like guesswork.

Let me put it this way: This administration has been following the rules. They have been following the process to try and address marijuana laws with executive action. They’ve done everything that we’ve asked any White House to try for the last 15 years. And the Schedule III thing and where the DEA is at right now, I really do see that as due diligence. I don’t see that as them waiting out a final answer. I see them waiting out an answer.

If the DEA comes back with a defense of Schedule I and is in conflict with HHS, what does the White House do, then? The answer there, you’re gonna have to get engaged somehow or let prohibition just continue.

I did have a joint with me as @edokeefe can attest…but smoked it in front of the DOJ…kind of fitting too.

— Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) March 16, 2024

MM: The vice president’s comments directing DEA to move “quickly” on the scheduling review, she almost seemed to be expressing frustration with the timing or hinting at some tension with DEA in line with what The Wall Street Journal reported recently. Did you get that impression?

CG: Let me put it this way: She can create a sense of urgency on the DEA issuing their decision. Again, I think that the sense of urgency was not lost. I don’t think it’s a secret. And I do think that they want a definitive answer. HHS didn’t take that long to come up with their report, either. I have to point that out. And that was also a new process for HHS. They use like a new two-step review. I do think that it is interesting.

When the president has challenged these authorities to answer these questions, HHS has at least adapted and responded. We don’t know what the DEA is doing. It’s Secret Squirrel over there. There’s no transparency to that process, either. And, in fact, that’s one of the big problems with it. But again, I see this process with the DEA right now as due diligence.

The president still has the ability to send another letter to HHS directing descheduling and that is completely different review by both agencies.

MM: What other messages did you deliver to the vice president?

CG: I told her that the power of pardons from the White House was huge for people like me to get it. But as an activist, what I’ve done is print [the pardon certificate] out and put it in people’s hands. And it’s true—I mean, I have to tell you, it’s like doing a bit of street magic. There’s a sense of awe that comes across people’s face when they realize you’re reading a presidential pardon.

I tried to convey to her is that the power of the pardon isn’t just on those of us who get it. We take it back to our whole community. The people who see it when we print it out or when we talk about it, it really is something that affects people. Street magic inspires awe. It’s a universal emotion, a positive emotion, and I’ve got to say I have watched that happen with this pardon.

It is the best piece of street magic I’ve ever been able to do. I didn’t have my business card when I showed up at Congress yesterday, I used my pardon instead and it totally worked. And every staffer I put it in the hands of, you could see the smile, ear-to-ear. I’m not kidding.

I tried to convey to Vice President Harris that visceral reality—the good will of that I’ve seen really happen from that pardon. And so she told me that she really felt that, that’s the power of the pardon, that she heard that back. So it was nice to hear that from the vice president.

On the table in the Roosevelt Room you can see my pardon alongside @NORML founder Keith Stroup's annotated green-cover copy of the Shafer Report. That blue-ribbon presidential commission recommended federal #marijuana decriminalization and descheduling…in 1972. #cannabispic.twitter.com/65MlvRs9zG

— Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) March 17, 2024

MM: It would’ve been hard to believe at the time of your arrest that you’d eventually find yourself invited to the White House to discuss clemency with the executive office. But you did have one person who predicted that at the time, right?

CG: Oh yeah, my lawyer was Bill Buckman. He was very involved with the ACLU and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. Bill was a world-recognized civil rights attorney. When Bill took on my case, pro bono, and I got convicted, he was exasperated. He could not believe that the judge did what he did. He couldn’t believe that we were being treated this way.

And when I got convicted and sentenced, he tried to reassure me. He said, “Chris, this was just wrong. And one day, you’re gonna get a pardon for this, you’re going to end up talking about this at the White House. This is going to turn around.”

He was fighting for an appeal for me. He thought we would win that, too, but he passed away one year into my two years of probation. I never thought I’d have to serve every day, but since Bill passed away so that’s what I had to do. But he knew in some way. He knew before I could even really realize that I’d be where I am today.

It is a community that got me here, not myself. I mean, the smartest person in the room is not me, it’s the team. And the good thing about a grassroots community is that there’s always a great team to work with. It’s not always there. There’s a lot of turnover. And, believe me, there’s a lot of infighting in any political group. Not everybody gets along.

But in going into the White House over the last couple of weeks, I tried to bring everybody I could with me, and I went around to talk with as many advocacy organizations as possible to make sure that I was conveying the message not just from my own story, but from our community to the White House. And I feel like I pulled that off in one day.

But to the same extent, the greatest thing about the meeting today was it did not feel like a one-time event. There were some words expressed about doing more things like this. The White House wants to engage on this policy consistently. And that’s that’s clemency, criminal justice, marijuana legalization. They want to be right in it. And right now, the White House has an important role to play and they’re doing it.

MM: President Biden remains opposed to legalization. Did his position come up?

CG: No. Well, [Vice President Harris] talked about about Joe Biden’s successes on clemency. And that was the theme in which she talked about the president’s work.

But, again, I think what’s interesting is that she really went out there on her own today and said, ‘We need to legalize marijuana.’

And we’ve seen the vice president really taking a lot of good, strong positions lately. I think that’s a good one to take. It’s not a new one for her, as you point out, but it’s a new setting for her to say it and it is, in many ways, a historic setting for us.

As White House Hosts Marijuana Pardon Recipients, It’s Time For Bolder Action From Biden (Op-Ed)

Photo courtesy of Chris Goldstein.

VP Kamala Harris’s Office Is Reaching Out To Marijuana Pardon Recipients, Activist Says After Talking Legalization And Next Steps With Staff

Vice President Kamala Harris’s office has been reaching out to people who’ve received a pardon for marijuana possession under the president’s clemency proclamations—seeking assurance that the Justice Department certification process is going smoothly and engaging in broader discussions about cannabis policy reform, according to a pardon recipient who was contacted.

Chris Goldstein, a cannabis activist who recently received a pardon certificate after being formally forgiven for a 2014 cannabis possession case, told Marijuana Moment on Thursday that the vice president’s office reached out to him and then scheduled a meeting last Friday with three staffers to go over his certification experience and broader policy issues such as descheduling and expungements.

Goldstein said that the office was “really glad to hear” about the relative ease of the certification process, and he said he was “surprised by how up-to-speed and nice everybody was.”

Notably, the advocate said that, after he explained to staff that he was arrested for possession while protesting for marijuana legalization on federal property, the four of them then discussed the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which is a congressional bill to comprehensively end cannabis prohibition that Harris sponsored during her time in the Senate and which passed the House twice.

“Her staff really did know the difference between rescheduling descheduling, and they were interested to talk about it,” Goldstein said, emphasizing that he initiated the conversation about broader legalization issues, not the other way around.

Good news: the Office of @VP@KamalaHarris contacted me to talk about getting one of the #marijuana possession pardons from @POTUS.

Turned into a good 30min meeting with staff covering pardons, descheduling, and careful messaging.

Refreshed hope in this old activist.

— Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) February 16, 2024

Additionally, he raised the point that the pardons people received over possession did not clear their records and still need to be expunged. Goldstein said the office “absolutely heard that” and understood the “nuance” of the policy issue.

He also expressed to the staff that while he appreciates the administration’s messaging around how nobody should be in jail over marijuana, it would be more meaningful to say that nobody should be arrested over marijuana, as his own possession case involved an arrest but no jail time.

“So that was my ask. And they heard that too,” Goldstein said. “And they acknowledged that that was a difference that they had seen in their messaging on other criminal justice bills, and they acknowledged it as an interesting point to bring up for this.”

“I want to give them credit for this, because they were reaching out to pretty much anybody who they could who had gotten a pardon recently through the Department of Justice and trying to communicate with people about the pardons and make sure the process was going well,” he said. “It seemed seemed like they were really invested in making sure that people had an easy process in getting the pardons and that it was easy to apply, it was a short waiting period, all those things.”

It’s unclear why the vice president’s office is taking the lead on the pardon outreach, as opposed to that of the President Joe Biden, who issued the relief and has routinely promoted the action.

In any case, Harris’s staff didn’t make any specific commitments on future marijuana policy reform initiatives, Goldstein said, but the coordination of the meeting itself is encouraging to advocates—especially given that frustrations have pent up over the relative silence from the vice president on cannabis issues during the administration’s first term in light of her prior advocacy for legalization as a senator.

Marijuana Moment reached out to the vice president’s office for comment, but a representative was not immediately available.

Harris also faced criticism last week after sharing a video where she claimed the administration had “changed federal marijuana policy.” While Biden has issued thousands of simple possession pardons and directed the ongoing review into federal cannabis scheduling, the law itself has not changed at this point, and campaign pledges to decriminalize marijuana have yet gone unfulfilled.

Goldstein’s point to the vice president’s office about the need for expungements also gets at another point of contention for advocates, who’ve criticized Biden’s frequent claim that his pardon action meant that people had their records cleared. In fact, a pardon only constitutes formal forgiveness, but those convictions are not wiped away.

In the background of the vice president’s office outreach effort, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is in the process of completing its review into cannabis scheduling after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommended moving it from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Rumors recently swirled that the DEA’s scheduling announcement would come last week, but that did not happen and a Biden administration official told Marijuana Moment that they’d “wave off” the speculation about imminent action.

Meanwhile, a recent survey found that voters’ impression of the president jumped a net 11 points after hearing about the possible implications of the rescheduling review—and that includes an 11-point favorability swing among young voters 18-25 who will be critical to his reelection bid.

Marijuana Tax Revenue Should Fund Education And Housing, Not Police And Prisons, Voters Say In New Poll

Photo element courtesy of California Attorney General’s Office.