Marijuana Legalization Is ‘An Issue For The States,’ VP Candidate Tim Walz Says, Adding That Electing Democrats To Congress Will Boost Cannabis Reform

Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz said he thinks marijuana legalization is an issue that should be left to individual states, though he added that electing more Democrats to Congress could also make it easier to pass federal reforms like cannabis banking protections.

Legalization came up as Walz was interviewed in Wisconsin earlier this month by Spectrum News reporter Charlotte Scott, who asked the candidate: “Should marijuana be legalized across the U.S. for recreational and medical use?”

“Well, I think it’s an issue for the states on some of those, and that’s the way the states have done it,” Walz, who is Minnesota’s governor and previously served in Congress, replied, dodging the direct question about national cannabis legalization.

Walz then highlighted two incremental reform issues: medical marijuana access for veterans who receive healthcare through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) as well as passage of federal legislation that would ease restrictions for banks that due business with marijuana companies.

If Democrats take control of both houses of Congress, he said, those matters might be easier to address.

“There’s work to be done nationally around the banking issue,” he said in the Spectrum News interview that was posted on September 14, “and I think that’s something that if we get a working Congress who actually wants to solve some issues—when we have the Democrats in charge of the House and the Senate—then we can start to see if some of those things make sense.”

The House under Democratic control has passed cannabis banking legislation seven times, but the reform has repeatedly stalled in the Senate under both Democratic and Republican majorities—though it did advance from committee in the chamber for the first time last year.

The candidate notably stopped short of pledging to pursue federal legalization if elected to the White House, though both he and his running mate, current Vice President Kamala Harris (D) have taken steps in the past to support legalization.

Walz’s comments are believed to be the first time either member of the Democratic ticket has publicly discussed marijuana during the current campaign.

Walz backed numerous cannabis reform measures in Congress and called for an end to prohibition when he was running for Minnesota governor and later signed a comprehensive cannabis legalization bill into law in 2023

A military veteran, he’s also prioritized medical cannabis access for the veteran community, having sponsored the first piece of standalone marijuana reform legislation to move through a congressional committee: a measure meant to promote medical cannabis research for veterans.

In Minnesota, Walz also enacted legislation to broadly decriminalize drug paraphernalia, allow safe consumption sites and create a psychedelics task force in the state.

Walz’s cannabis record stands in stark contrast to former President Donald Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), who has voiced support for states’ rights to legalize but voted against bipartisan banking legislation that passed in committee. Vance has also argued that states that have enacted legalization should increase enforcement activities, complained about the smell of cannabis multiple times and suggested that its use can lead to violence.

Harris, for her part, has spoken in favor of federal legalization in the past, for example at a closed-door roundtable event with cannabis pardon recipients in March. During her time in the Senate she sponsored a bill to federally deschedule marijuana. In her previous run for president, Harris also backed full federal decriminalization for simple drug possession.

Meanwhile former President Donald Trump said recently during his campaign for a second term that he now supports federal marijuana rescheduling and marijuana banking access.

“As President, we will continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws, including safe banking for state authorized companies, and supporting states rights to pass marijuana laws, like in Florida, that work so well for their citizens,” Trump posted to social media earlier this month.

Trump also recently discussed the medical benefits of cannabis and said legalization would be “very good” for Florida, which will consider the reform at the ballot box in November’s election.

The Harris–Walz campaign, however, 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.

Nevertheless, Harris herself has yet to lay out a defined platform on the issue since accepting her party’s presidential nomination.

Following Trump’s recent announcement of support for the Florida cannabis legalization ballot measure, however, her campaign has been working to remind voters that while in office, Trump “took marijuana reform backwards.”

In a memo from a senior campaign spokesperson, the Harris campaign accused Trump of “brazen flip flops” on cannabis, saying it’s one of the Republican former president’s “several bewildering ‘policy proposals’ that deserve real scrutiny.”

The posturing by the White House candidates comes amid an ongoing process of moving marijuana to the less-restrictive Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

The Department of Health and Humans Services (HHS) this spring recommended moving the drug to Schedule III, but the action has faced resistance from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which has scheduled a hearing on the proposal for December 2—after the presidential election, raising concerns that the process will not be completed until after a new president is inaugurated.

Meanwhile, Trump also recently went after Harris over her prosecutorial record on marijuana, claiming that she put “thousands and thousands of Black people in jail” for cannabis offenses—but the full record of her time in office is more nuanced.

Trump’s line of attack, while misleading, was nonetheless notable in the sense that the GOP presidential nominee implied that he disagrees with criminalizing people over marijuana and is moving to leverage the idea that Harris played a role in racially disproportionate mass incarceration.

As president, Trump largely stayed true to his position that marijuana laws should be handled at the state-level, with no major crackdown on cannabis programs as some feared after then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded the Obama era federal enforcement guidance. In fact, Trump criticized the top DOJ official and suggested the move should be reversed.

While he was largely silent on the issue of legalization, he did tentatively endorse a bipartisan bill to codify federal policy respecting states’ rights to legalize.

That said, on several occasions he released signing statements on spending legislation stipulating that he reserved the right to ignore a long-standing rider that prohibits the Justice Department from using its funds to interfere with state-legal medical marijuana programs.

Before President Joe Biden bowed out of the race, his campaign made much of the president’s mass cannabis pardons and rescheduling push, drawing a contrast with the Trump administration’s record. The Harris campaign so far has not spoken to that particular issue, and the nominee has yet to publicly discuss marijuana policy issues since her own campaign launched.

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