Why Kamala's Cannabis Record Doesn't Matter in a Biden Administration
An old adage in Washington D.C. is there are 10 rules to selecting a Vice President: the first is to pick someone that can help you win, and forget the other nine. But this selection is different. Harris brings marginal electoral upside to the battleground states. Her home state, California, has been solidly blue since 1992. Harris doesn’t have a strong brand or following to activate voters in Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, or Michigan. She may motivate the black vote to turnout in greater numbers in this election, and as the only person of color on the ballot she may be able to assuage concerns about Biden's spotty record with minorities. But electoral reasons and her cultural significance as the first woman of color on the ticket are not why Harris is interesting today to the cannabis industry as the presumptive Democratic Vice Presidential candidate.
Some believe Kamala Harris is likely to have a more active role in governing than previous Vice Presidents. This is because of questions around Joe Biden’s mental acumen and advanced age. This line of reasoning isn’t new, and was used to explain hyper scrutiny of Sarah Palin when John McCain selected her to be his running mate in 2008. And so these people believe Harris’s role would resemble more Dick Cheney to George W. Bush than what Joe Biden was to Barack Obama.
The people who are taking an unconventional stance that the V.P. will have an outsized role in making policy, are following the conventional wisdom to predict a Biden Administration’s cannabis policy: look at their past record. And there is a long and evolving record detailing Kamala Harris’s relationship with cannabis.
Up until recently, Harris was nothing short of hostile to cannabis. She rose to the rank of colonel in the war on drugs. As a prosecutor, she conducted and directed cannabis prosecutions that resulted in countless convictions. In 2010, she authored the official California Voter Guide against Proposition 19—a measure to legalize cannabis in California. In her 2014 Attorney General campaign, she famously laughed off a question whether she was pro-legalization. As Attorney General, she oversaw almost 2,000 cannabis incarcerations.
But as times change, so do positions. And while Attorney General and Prosecutor Kamala Harris was hostile, Senator Kamala Harris has been nothing short of a champion for cannabis. Most of her actions and language on cannabis are about racial inequality. For example, she is the chief sponsor of the Senate version of the MORE Act, a partisan cannabis legalization bill focused on minority equity and justice. She authored and signed letters addressing racial injustice with cannabis, and posted supporting tweets. She has been a friend to medical marijuana research. And in terms of practical legislation, she is a cosponsor of the critical SAFE Banking legislation.
However, this type of analysis is used to predict a potential president’s actions based on their record. Kamala Harris is a potential vice president. And her record does not matter in predicting a Biden Administration’s cannabis policy. Policy flows from the President’s office. The President's extensive network of policy advisors and aids create, and when necessary they call on the Vice President to help execute.
One major exception was George W. Bush’s relationship with Dick Cheney. George W. Bush had known Cheney since 1987, where Cheney served in his father’s administration as Secretary of Defense. Cheney was deeply involved in Bush’s campaign, chairing his Vice Presidential search committee. Importantly, Bush was a Washington outsider; he had no foreign policy experience, previously serving as the Governor of Texas.
Unlike the Bush–Cheney dynamic, Joe Biden would not be a Washington new-comer when he assumes the Oval Office. Biden has nearly 50 years of experience on virtually every issue. He also has a mushroom-cloud sized rolodex of relationships in policy that will make themselves very available to a Biden Administration. Biden would be prepared to build the necessary staff and have a cogent policy matrix on day-one. Importantly, Biden has no real relationship with Kamala Harris. She was elected to the Senate after Biden left the White House, and their interactions are limited to campaign debates where she was a rival. As part of her selection, Harris agreed that she would not personally select any members of her staff—not even her sister who was a close advisor to Hillary Clinton.
It’s Harris, who was sworn into the Senate in 2017, that is the Washington new-comer on the ticket. And as such it would be hard to imagine that she would take total ownership of policy or steer major policy decisions. Harris will certainly be visible in the Biden administration as a spokesperson, as a lobbyist, and as an surrogate. When major policy decisions are made, she will be in the room and likely have a voice; but it is more fantastical than reality to believe her past policy decisions and evolution on cannabis would drive a Biden Administration.
Even if Biden’s mental acumen is as poor as his detractors claim, Harris running the country d.b.a. Biden is not certain. George H.W. Bush was iced out of most decisions throughout Ronald Reagan’s administration, even while Reagan’s Alzheimers became more pronounced later in his second term. And day-to-day there are many more senior officials closer to a president, such as their Chief-of-Staff.
Think back on Vice Presidents for a moment. Do we believe Mike Pence created and drove Donald Trump’s policy positions? Biden to Obama's? Gore to Clinton's? Quayle to H.W. Bush's? Can you even name Jimmy Carter’s VP? I’ll give you a hint—he’s from my home state of Minnesota!
Maybe Kamala Harris will be different. Maybe this will be one of those rare moments in history where the vice president runs policy. And maybe she will be the driving force behind a Biden Administration’s cannabis policy. If that were true, the cannabis industry would be in a better place. But, there a big difference between reality and maybe.
