California Senator Kamala Harris says that she supports legalizing marijuana, which, she said, “gives a lot of people joy.” The senator and presidential hopeful was asked about her views on marijuana when she appeared on The Breakfast Club, a radio show produced out of New York City. You can watch Harris on the show here.
The Breakfast Club hosts asked Harris whether it was true that she opposed legalizing marijuana. “That’s not true,” replied Harris. She added, laughing, “You know, half my family is from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?”
She said that she had smoked marijuana and said, “I did inhale” — a reference to former president Bill Clinton’s claim that he had tried smoking pot but never inhaled. Pressed, Harris said that she’d smoked a joint and that she did remember the high. But the presidential hopeful dodged a question about whether she’d start smoking marijuana again if the drug became legal nation-wide. Instead, Harris laughed and said, “listen, I think that it gives a lot of people joy, and we need more joy.”
Harris Called for Marijuana to be Legalized in Her New Memoir
Harris recently published a memoir titled “The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.” The California senator wrote about her views on marijuana, which have evolved over the years. “We need to legalize marijuana and regulate it,” Harris wrote, adding, “we need to expunge nonviolent marijuana-related offenses from the records of millions of people who have been arrested and incarcerated so they can get on with their lives.”
Harris’s views on marijuana have evolved over the years. In 2014, when she was running for re-election as California’s attorney general, Harris faced a Republican opponent who supported legalizing the drug. But when reporters asked Harris whether she also supported legalizing marijuana, she dodged the question, laughing and saying that her opponent was “entitled to his opinion.” She later refused to support a ballot measure in support of legalizing marijuana in California.