Sen. Kamala Harris (D., Calif.) on Tuesday called for a federal drug enforcement policy that treated substance abuse as a disease rather than a crime and proposed decriminalizing marijuana.
"We need to do the smart thing and the right thing and finally decriminalize marijuana," Harris said during her speech at the Center for American Progress' 2017 Idea Conference. Harris indicated that she didn't support legalizing all drugs because of her experience as a prosecutor, but suggested that she made an exception with marijuana.
During her address, she called for more criminal justice reform and rejected a recent call by Attorney General Jeff Sessions to more frequently impose mandatory minimum sentences.
"We need a national drug policy that finally treats substance abuse not as a crime to be punished but as a disease to be treated," Harris said.