“Sen. Tulsi Gabbard took aim at Sen. Kamala Harris, a former California attorney general who is also widely considered one of the leading candidates in the race, attacking Harris for her prosecutorial record and accusing her of blocking evidence that could have potentially freed a man from death row. Gabbard particularly zeroed in on Harris’s record on drug-related offenses: “She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana,” Gabbard said, referring to an interview Harris gave to The Breakfast Club in which she joked about smoking pot in college.”
“Gabbard’s remarks seemed to have, as CNN’s Chris Cilizza put it, “gotten under [Harris’s] skin.” She has since retaliated by referring to Gabbard as an “apologist” for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and doubled down on her defense of her actions while serving as state attorney general.”
“But as Gabbard’s remarks reveal, Harris has historically adopted a much more rigorous stance against legalization, to the degree that as recently as five years ago, she laughed when an interviewer brought up the subject. As NORML executive director Erik Altieri puts it to Rolling Stone, her history on drug reform has been “problematic,” and her “record is not one anyone would qualify as progressive, particularly when it comes to marijuana.” Here’s exactly what that record has been, and whether her current, much more tolerant stance should be trusted.”
Read more: Kamala Harris Is Being Taken to Task for Her Role in the Drug War
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