Washington DC - Kamala Harris recently revealed that she supports legalizing marijuana, signaling that she may take on the issue if she manages to win the presidency.

On Monday, the vice president sat down for an interview on the All The Smoke podcast, in which she declared that "we need to legalize it and stop criminalizing this behavior."

"I just feel strongly people should not be going to jail for smoking weed," Harris continued. "And we know historically what that has meant and who has gone to jail."

While it is the first time she has commented on cannabis since becoming the presidential nominee less than two months ago, Harris noted that it "is not a new position" for her, as she has felt this way "for a long time."

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In 2019, as she was running for president in the Democratic primaries, Harris admitted during an interview that she tried pot in college and said she was "absolutely in favor" of legalizing it, adding that she believes "it gives a lot of people joy, and we need more joy."

Her recent remarks come as the vast majority of Americans agree that marijuana should be legalized, and politicians are beginning to realize it could be a game-changer for the 2024 presidential race.

According to polls conducted by the Pew Research Center, nine in ten Americans believe marijuana should be legal for medical or recreational use.

The issue is also one of the biggest that both political parties seem to overwhelmingly agree on, as 94% of Democrats support legalization, as well as 82% of Republicans.

Despite the support, politicians have shied away from making legalization a reality, either joking about the idea or not taking it seriously.

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But as Harris and Trump are in an incredibly tight race, both candidates are seeking to gain support from every avenue, especially with young people.

While Harris has made the issue a focus of hers in recent years, she has faced criticism for having prosecuted marijuana-related crimes during her time as Attorney General of California.

Trump, who is well-known for being tough on crime and drugs, recently came out in favor of a ballot initiative that seeks to legalize cannabis in his home state of Florida, but has not spoken on whether he would support legalizing it nationally.

"We do not need to ruin lives & waste Taxpayer Dollars arresting adults with personal amounts of it on them," he wrote on Truth Social last month.

Trump also urged lawmakers to adopt rules against cannabis use in public "so we do not smell marijuana everywhere we go, like we do in many of the Democrat-run cities."