Topline
President Joe Biden said Thursday he will pardon anybody who has been convicted in federal court for marijuana possession, a move the White House says could apply to thousands of people, fulfilling a campaign promise and taking a major step toward reducing cannabis use penalties.
President Joe Biden delivers remarks at IBM in Poughkeepsie, New York, on Thursday.
Key Facts
The Attorney General will set up a process for issuing the pardons, which will be available for simple marijuana possession offenses, Biden said in a statement.
The president argued that “no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” and said prior convictions for marijuana offenses have “imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities.”
The pardons will not apply to possession of other drugs, and Biden said “important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and under-age sales should stay in place.”
Biden pushed governors to pardon anybody convicted of marijuana possession at the state level, though the president doesn’t have the power to issue state pardons himself.
He also directed the Attorney General and Secretary of Health and Human Services to reassess marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug, a status awarded to drugs like heroin with a high potential for abuse and no recognized medical applications
What To Watch For
Advocates have long argued that moving marijuana to a less severe schedule could make it easier to research the drug and offer it for medical uses. The Attorney General or the Drug Enforcement Agency has the power to reschedule a drug without congressional approval, but HHS is required to assess the drug’s impacts, abuse potential and impact on public health beforehand, according to the Brookings Institution.
Key Background
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden promised to “automatically expunge all prior cannabis use convictions.” The president has often taken a middle-ground stance on marijuana. He supports decriminalizing the drug and legalizing its use for medical purposes, and he says individual states should make their own decisions on recreational use, but he hasn’t endorsed legalizing the drug for recreational purposes nationwide like some members of his party. His administration also caught flak last year after several White House staffers were pushed out because they admitted to marijuana use during the security clearance process. The legal regime for marijuana has become muddled over the last decade. More than a dozen states have legalized the drug and set up regulated systems for its sale, and the Department of Justice has largely avoided interfering with these new state-regulated marketplaces even though possessing or selling the drug remains illegal under federal law.
Big Number
6,500. That’s how many U.S. citizens were convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law from 1992 to last year, a senior administration official told reporters Thursday. The figure does not include people who were convicted under D.C. law, who will also be eligible for pardons.
Tangent
It’s not unusual for presidents to grant pardons or commute sentences for relatively minor drug offenses, but Biden’s pardons could be more sweeping and extensive than most of his predecessors’.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/joewalsh/2022/10/06/biden-will-pardon-all-federal-marijuana-possession-convictions/