Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D), the Democratic vice presidential nominee, says marijuana legalization must be coupled with policies that give those who’ve been disproportionately targeted by criminalization “the first shot to make money” in the legal cannabis industry.
During a campaign speech in North Carolina last week, Walz talked about how “our laws have taken a disproportionate impact on certain communities, and certainly the Black community.”
“Laws around cannabis have disproportionately impacted and set back folks in those communities,” he said. “So when we in Minnesota talk about this—and [Vice President Kamala Harris] talks about the country— legalizing recreational cannabis, but make sure that the community that was most negatively impacted gets the first shot to make money in those industries.”
Walz also talked about racial disparities in cannabis criminalization as a motivating factor for reform as lawmakers in Minnesota worked to pass an adult-use legalization bill, which he signed into law last year.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, also recently reiterated that her support for federal legalization is centered in an understanding about the disparate impacts of prohibition and the need to promote social justice policies in the expanding industry.
If elected, she will “break down unjust legal barriers that hold Black men and other Americans back by legalizing marijuana nationally, working with Congress to ensure that the safe cultivation, distribution, and possession of recreational marijuana is the law of the land,” the Harris campaign said earlier this month.
While Harris and Walz are aligned in their belief that prohibition should be replaced with a system of legalization and regulation, the governor has largely focused on the rights of states to set their own cannabis laws, rather than weigh in on federal legalization prospects.
He also said this month that there’s “work to be done nationally” to address the lack of banking access for state-licensed marijuana businesses, and he signaled that modest reforms like that would be easier to enact if voters put Democrats in the majority in both chambers of Congress.
Meanwhile, Harris also said this month that part of the reason for the delay in the administration’s current marijuana rescheduling effort is federal bureaucracy that “slows things down,” including at the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
On the other ticket heading into next month’s election, former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee, has backed a Florida marijuana legalization initiative that will be on the ballot, as well as cannabis banking reform and rescheduling.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), has voiced support for letting states decide on their own marijuana policies, though he’s also said they should increase enforcement activities and complained about the smell of cannabis multiple times. Additionally, he’s repeatedly sounded the alarm about fentanyl-laced marijuana, though he more recently conceded that the issue isn’t widespread.
The Harris–Walz campaign, meanwhile, has accused Trump of lying about his support for marijuana reform—arguing that his “blatant pandering” runs counter to his administration’s record on cannabis.
Following Trump’s recent announcement of support for the Florida cannabis legalization ballot measure, the Democratic campaign has been working to communicate to voters that, while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”
Separately, on Thursday, singer and marijuana icon Willie Nelson is holding a virtual “Cannabis Community for Kamala” event—with featured speakers including Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D), a congresswoman and Whoopi Goldberg—to shore up support for the Democratic presidential nominee ahead of the election by highlighting her marijuana reform record.
Federal Appeals Court Schedules Oral Argument In Case Seeking To Overturn U.S. Marijuana Prohibition
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