Posted by ReformCA
In politics, they call it “evolving.” President Barack Obama did it on gay marriage. Yesterday, Attorney General Kamala Harris did it on cannabis legalization.
In August, she laughed when asked for her position on legalization. This set off a firestorm in our movement. Thousands of Californians visited our website to send her an email and let her know what they thought of her response.
In September and October, her office found itself in the middle of two strong reminders that prohibition is still in effect in California. First, we learned that officers from her office participated in warrantless raids on voter approved medical growers in Mendocino. Then, her office admitted that there were 20,346 arrests for cannabis in California in 2013 — disproportionally affecting twenty-somethings and Hispanics.
Finally, yesterday, she opened up, telling BuzzFeed’s Adam Serwer that she doesn’t, “have any moral opposition to it.” Then she went on to say that, “there’s a certain inevitability about it.”
This is a small, but significant, win for our movement since she’s in a position to interpret and later help implement a 2016 ballot initiative to regulate and tax cannabis.
We want to thank the thousands of Californians who used our website to reach out to her. We’re convinced that hearing directly from constituents helped her decide to provide a serious answer about where she stands on this issue.
Read more about California marijuana legalization at reformica.com.