By Oscar Pascual |
California Attorney General Kamala Harris won the crowd at this year’s California Democratic Convention, using a platform against prohibition and the War on Drugs during her speech to become the state’s favorite choice for the next senator. .
“I’ll tell you what standing up means to the people,” Harris said passionately to the crowd. “It means challenging the policy of mass incarceration by recognizing that the War on Drugs was a failure.”
Harris then went on to end federal raids on the state’s law-abiding medical cannabis dispensaries with a circumstantial trial over Democratic U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and her anti-legalization stance.
“And Democrats, let’s be clear on that point too — now is the time to end the federal ban on medical marijuana,” Harris said.
Harris commanded the crowd of at least 2,000 Democrats and was easily one of the stars of the convention. Breitbart reports that Harris was given a prime-time speaking spot and also received the endorsement of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is expected to run as 2016 presidential candidate against presumed Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
The same cannot be said of Harris’ opposition for the Senate position, Loretta Sanchez.
Sanchez was given a much less visible speaking spot on Sunday, after many attendees left after Saturday’s events. In addition, her weekend was marred by an unfortunate joke made on an Indian-American caucus where she denounced the difference between Indians and Native Americans by imitating a “war cry.”
Despite Sanchez’s poor performance at the convention, she also believes in ending prohibition in California.
“I’ve seen time and again in my own state of California that people have a large majority vote on the whole issue of marijuana and its possession,” Sanchez said in a 2013 interview with CNN. “Maybe it would be a good pilot program to see how that regulation of marijuana could happen in California, as the population, the majority of Californians, believe that maybe that should happen.”
Photo credit: Flickr.com/zennie62
