Cornel West, an independent 2024 presidential candidate, says Vice President Kamala Harris should not only “fulfill her promise on cannabis legalization,” but also embrace the decriminalization of psychedelics and a broader end to the drug war.
In an X post on Sunday, West shared a Marijuana Moment article on his prior comments about the need for Democrats to “follow through” on cannabis reform, and then expanded on his thinking about drug policy issues.
“Brothers and sisters, I call on VP Harris to not only fulfill her promise on cannabis legalization but, in the name of mental health and addiction, to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA, and Ibogaine,” he said.
“The War on Drugs has devastated our communities—we must end it, expunge records, and offer real second chances. Science and compassion demand it,” West said. “Let’s support small businesses and home growers while building an economy rooted in truth, justice, and love. It’s time to hold our leaders accountable.”
While Harris backs marijuana legalization—privately calling for the reform during a roundtable event with cannabis pardon recipients at the White House in March and sponsoring a bill to end prohibition during her time in the Senate—she has not publicly weighed in on psychedelics policy issues.
Psychedelics did become a talking point by other candidates this election cycle, however.
Former Democratic nominee Marianne Williamson had pledged to legalize “less harmful drugs,” including marijuana and psilocybin, while providing free access to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to treat drug addiction.
Former Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy took a more modest position, calling for the decriminalization of ayahuasca and ketamine for military veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to mitigate the suicide crisis.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who left the Democratic primary to run as an independent candidate before dropping out, had also shared why he’s embraced allowing access to psychedelics for mental health treatment, describing how his son’s experience with ayahuasca helped him process the death of his mother. He’s now heading up the transition team for former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican nominee.
Meanwhile, West’s post is the latest example of how drug policy reform has more centrally entered the debate ahead of the November election.
One of the most significant developments is former President Donald Trump’s newly announced support for federal marijuana rescheduling, industry banking access and a Florida cannabis legalization initiative that will be on the ballot.
Harris has been notably silent on her cannabis position since becoming the nominee after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.
Advocates have also taken note that a new, long-awaited issues page launched by the Harris campaign omits any mention of marijuana policy reform despite her record promoting comprehensive legalization.
The prior Biden-Harris campaign had made several attempts to contrast the administration’s marijuana reform actions with those of the Trump administration, pointing out for example that his former attorney general, Jeff Sessions, had rescinded Obama era guidance that generally encouraged prosecutorial discretion in federal marijuana enforcement.
But since Harris became the nominee, it’s been Trump who’s been most vocal about his desire to see cannabis reform implemented.
Trump’s latest marijuana post follows up on one he made last month in which he indicated—but did not explicitly say—he supported Amendment 3 in Florida. The earlier comments predicted that Florida voters would approve the cannabis measure and generally discussed the benefits of legalization, but left some observers wanting more clarity on the former president’s position on the specific state initiative.
Trump also discussed the medical benefits of cannabis and said legalization would be “very good” for Florida in an interview with Lex Fridman last week.
Prior to announcing his support for marijuana reform, the former president met with the CEO of Trulieve Cannabis Corp., a large company that has provided the vast majority of funding in support of the Florida legalization campaign.
Last month at a press conference, Trump told a reporter that he’s starting to “agree a lot more” that people should not be criminalized over marijuana given that it’s “being legalized all over the country”—adding that he would “fairly soon” reveal his position on the Florida ballot measure.
Following Trump’s recent announcement of support for the Florida cannabis legalization ballot measure, the campaign for Harris has worked to remind voters that while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”
In a memo from a senior campaign spokesperson, the Harris campaign accused Trump of “brazen flip flops” on cannabis. The Democratic campaign says it’s one of the Republican former president’s “several bewildering ‘policy proposals’ that deserve real scrutiny.”
“On issue after issue, Trump is saying one thing after having done another,” the memo says. “For example: As a candidate in 2024, he suggests he is for decriminalizing marijuana – but as President, his own Justice Department cracked down on marijuana offenses.”
Meanwhile, longtime ally and GOP political operative Roger Stone, who is also a Florida resident and supports the legalization proposal, separately told Marijuana Moment that if Trump did ultimately endorse the measure it would “guarantee victory.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who is sponsoring a bill to federally legalize marijuana called the States Reform Act, separately said that while she hoped Trump would back the Biden administration’s rescheduling move, she also said part of the reason Republicans in Congress have declined to embrace marijuana policy change is because they’re “afraid of it.”
Trump also recently went after Harris over her prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full record of her time in office is more nuanced.
Trump’s line of attack, while misleading, was nonetheless notable in the sense that the GOP presidential nominee implied that he disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and is moving to leverage the idea that Harris played a role in racially disproportionate mass incarceration.
Meanwhile, Harris selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate, choosing a candidate who backed numerous cannabis reform measures in Congress, called for an end to prohibition when he was running for governor and then signed a comprehensive legalization bill into law in 2023.
As president, Trump largely stayed true to his position that marijuana laws should be handled at the state-level, with no major crackdown on cannabis programs as some feared after then-Sessions rescinded the Obama era federal enforcement guidance. In fact, Trump criticized the top DOJ official and suggested the move should be reversed.
While he was largely silent on the issue of legalization, he did tentatively endorse a bipartisan bill to codify federal policy respecting states’ rights to legalize.
That said, on several occasions he released signing statements on spending legislation stipulating that he reserved the right to ignore a long-standing rider that prohibits the Justice Department from using its funds to interfere with state-legal medical marijuana programs.
Harris Campaign Omits Marijuana From New Issues Page As Trump Earns Praise For Backing Legalization
Image element courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.
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