Democrats vote on 2024 platform that touts support for marijuana reform and criticizes Trump’s anti-cannabis actions

Delegates to the Democratic National Convention will vote Monday on a party platform that touts President Joe Biden’s marijuana pardons and reschedules while calling for broader reforms to expunge past charges. But even with Biden stepping down in the 2024 race, with pro-legalization Vice President Kamala Harris as the new nominee, the party’s latest draft platform does not promote broader cannabis decriminalization like the earlier version passed in 2020.

The party also criticizes former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, for his previous administration’s anti-cannabis actions.

The Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Platform Committee released its draft platform last month, before Biden announced he was dropping out of the race. On marijuana provisions, the document is identical, though Harris and Biden share different positions on federal cannabis policy. Unlike the incumbent president, Harris supports federal legalization, something she discussed in a closed-door meeting with marijuana pardon recipients in March.

The platform, which will be voted on on the first day of the DNC convention, says Biden’s cannabis pardons are among the “historic steps” the administration has taken to advance criminal justice reform in his first term. “No one should be in prison simply for using or possessing marijuana,” it reads, echoing the president’s increasingly common phrase.

“No one should have to go to prison simply for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possession has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for behavior that many states no longer prohibit. Those records create unnecessary barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities, disproportionately affecting Black and brown people. President Biden has taken historic action to end this failed approach by pardoning people convicted of federal marijuana use or possession. He has called on governors to use their pardon powers to do the same for state offenses. And his administration is taking a major step toward reclassifying marijuana so that it is no longer considered more dangerous than fentanyl or methamphetamine.”

The platform, meanwhile, also says that Democrats “will take action to expunge federal convictions for marijuana alone.” While Biden has repeatedly suggested that his pardons had already erased the record, he recently clarified that that was not the case. While pardons represent formal forgiveness, a president cannot unilaterally erase records.

Notably, the broader decriminalization or legalization of cannabis is not explicitly mentioned in this year’s platform. Kevin Sabet, president of the prohibitionist group Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), applauded the exclusion Monday, praising those who “have helped so much behind the scenes.”

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The final Democratic Party Platform contains *no* language supporting marijuana legalization. Great work to all who helped so much behind the scenes!
👏👏👏https://t.co/NidFTN29NX photo.twitter.com/wvACTYb26X

— Kevin Sabet (@KevinSabet) August 19, 2024

In addition to decriminalization, the previous platform the DNC adopted in 2020 also called for the legalization of medical marijuana. This too has been omitted from this new draft.

But the final form still stands in stark contrast to the 2024 GOP platform, which does not specifically address marijuana at all but does promote policies that advance an anti-drug agenda. For example, the party said it will “get tough” on and “destroy” drug cartels.

Democrats also hope to capitalize on the contrasting marijuana positions of the Biden-Harris and Trump administrations. The DNC platform states that the Trump administration threatened “federal prosecution for marijuana cases in states where marijuana was legal” by repealing Obama-era guidelines that generally called for discretion in enforcing bans on cannabis-related activities that were legal under state law.

“Trump’s approach to criminal justice couldn’t be more different,” it reads. “His administration has threatened federal prosecution for marijuana cases in states where marijuana was legal.”

Before Biden dropped out of the race, his campaign played up those policy positions as well, with multiple emails and online ads portraying the incumbent president as the better choice for those supporting cannabis reform. However, since Harris rose to the top of the ticket, her campaign has remained silent on marijuana policy issues.

Observers are also awaiting a formal statement from Trump on his position on a proposal to legalize recreational cannabis that will go on the ballot in November in Florida, where he lives. Trump has said he is increasingly open to decriminalization as a statewide push for legalization gathers momentum.

Harris has taken a more defined position on cannabis issues heading into the election. While critics, including Trump, have been quick to point out her denunciations of marijuana, she has also sponsored a comprehensive legalization bill in the Senate and called for legalization in a closed-door meeting with cannabis pardon recipients as recently as March.

Meanwhile, Harris has chosen Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as her running mate, a candidate who sponsored numerous cannabis reform measures in Congress, called for an end to prohibition when he ran for governor, and then signed a comprehensive legalization bill into law in 2023.

As president, Trump largely remained committed to his position that marijuana laws should be handled at the state level, without a wholesale crackdown on cannabis programs as some feared after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded Obama-era federal enforcement guidelines. Trump even criticized the top DOJ official, suggesting the measure should be rolled back.

While he has remained largely silent on the issue of legalization, he has tentatively supported a bipartisan bill to set federal policy and respect states’ rights to legalize.

That said, he has made statements on several occasions on spending legislation indicating that he reserved the right to override a long-standing provision that prohibits the Justice Department from using its funds to intervene in state-legal medical marijuana programs.

The DNC has separately taken to social media to highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s marijuana reform platform, but has faced some backlash after suggesting that cannabis has already been reclassified and that the country’s “failed approach” to marijuana is now over.

In addition, a series of recent polls found that among likely voters in three key states where the presidential election remains uncertain — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — broad majorities support cannabis legalization, federal regulatory reform and access to banking in the marijuana sector.

Majority of Americans say marijuana use is punished ‘too harshly’ and past charges should be expunged, poll finds