
President Joe Biden announced Thursday pardons for thousands of Americans convicted at the federal level of simple marijuana possession offenses. He also stated that his administration would take steps to decriminalize this drug.
“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs,” Biden said in a video announcing the action.
The pardons will be limited to around 6,500 individualsPeople who were convicted of federal possession-related marijuana crimes between 1992 & 2001. This is because most convictions relating the drug to the state level are at the state level. Biden encouraged U.S. Governors to take similar actions to pardon citizens in their states who were convicted of cannabis possession crimes.
Although the move will only impact a small percentage of those incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses, Biden stated that the pardons will have an important impact.
“There are thousands of people who were convicted for marijuana possession who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result,” Biden said. “My pardon will remove this burden on them.”
Biden also stated that he will direct his administration to take further steps to decriminalize cannabis. Currently, cannabis is classified as a Schedule I drug, the same classification as heroin — an idea that “makes no sense,” the president said.
His announcement acknowledged racial disparities when it comes to the enforcement of marijuana related crimes. “While White and Black and Brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and Brown people have been arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionate rates,” Biden noted.
Biden said he will be directing Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland “to initiate the process of reviewing how marijuana is scheduled under federal law” — the first step toward “remedying the harmful racist impact” of cannabis-related convictionsAccording to Democratic lawmakers who called almost a full year ago for the drug’s removal from the Schedule I Drug List, it was.
Despite Biden’s recent shift on decriminalization, he has spent much of his political career escalating the war on drugs and laying the groundwork for further mass incarcerationBlack and Brown communities. He was most notable for his 1994 crime bill. This bill included funding for more prisons and encouraged states to increase their prison sentences. It also incentivized officers to make more drug-related arrests.
A recent Morning Consult pollIt was found that 60% of Americans support legalizing cannabis. Other polls support this conclusion. even higher rates of support among voters.
While the pardons are being celebrated, some have pointed to the fact that Biden has yet fulfilled many of the promises he made during his 2020 campaign season.
“This is excellent,” HuffPost senior reporter Jessica Schulberg tweeted, “and it’s also worth remembering that Biden campaigned on putting an end to incarcerating people for using ANY drug.”
Indeed, the president’s 2020 campaign website shows that Biden promised to “decriminalize the use of cannabis and automatically expunge all prior cannabis use convictions.” He also vowed to “end all incarceration for drug use alone” and to divert individuals convicted of such drug crimes “to drug courts and treatment.”
“Great Biden marijuana news, please do more and other drugs next,” Melissa Gira GrantWriter for The New Republic, wrote on Twitter to respond to the pardons.
“The Biden marijuana thing seems legit good,” said Evan GreerDirector of Fight for the Future. “Never gonna knock pardoning large numbers of people. Free em all.”
The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) also praised Biden’s action, but noted that he and Congress should do more.
“Moving forward, the Administration must work collaboratively with Congressional leadership to repeal America’s failed marijuana criminalization laws. … Congress should be inspired by the Administration’s actions today to act quickly and send legislation to the President’s desk that would help close this dark chapter of our history,” NORML’s Executive Director Erik Altieri said in a statement.
Notably, however, there are still tens of thousands of people in the U.S. incarcerated for cannabis-related crimes that Biden’s pardon will not help.
In an op–ed TruthoutDaniel Muessig, an ex-defense attorney, spoke out about his experience with being charged with federal offenses relating to cannabis distribution. The charges were trumped up by prosecutors in press releases as they were linked to other criminal activities that he, and others, were not aware of.
“Every nonviolent cannabis-related indictee was tied into something the public found far more sinister, allowing law enforcement to get their cannabis arrests and cash seizures while minimizing the public backlash that now follows such cases being pursued independent of other criminality,” Muessig wrote.