The new comments mark a split from the presidential administration in which she’s currently serving. The Biden administration is pursuing marijuana reclassification, which would put the drug in the same class as steroids and ketamine rather than crack cocaine, and supports expunging criminal records for simple possession. However, Joe Biden has never come out in support of legalising recreational use.

It’s a rare pivot to the Left in a campaign that, so far, has taken pains to be perceived as centrist and distance itself from the excesses of Harris’s failed primary campaign. Her past support for single-payer healthcare, a ban on fracking, and the abolition of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement contributed to her reputation among voters as too liberal. She is now campaigning as a border hawk, and has vowed not to ban fracking or pursue single-payer healthcare.

Donald Trump, too, also appears to be tacking to the Left on marijuana. Earlier this month, the former president came out in support of a Florida ballot initiative legalising recreational marijuana and expressed support for reclassification. “I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” he wrote on Truth social.

Harris’s All The Smoke interview largely avoided policy questions and focused instead on her personal life. The Vice President discussed her relationship with her husband and step-children, along with basketball, cooking, mental health, exercise and prayer, saying she prays and works out every morning.

“I just feel strongly people should not go to jail for smoking weed,” she said. “And we know historically what that has meant and who has gone to jail.”

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is UnHerd’s US correspondent.

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