President Joe Biden has decided to fulfill one of his campaign promises of decriminalizing marijuana by issuing a mass pardon for everyone convicted in a federal court for possession of marijuana in small amounts.
The pardon will affect over 6,000 people with federal convictions and thousands more charged in the state of Washington, DC.
President Biden also issued an order to review marijuana’s Schedule 1 status, which puts it in the same category as heroin. The federal review will loosen federal classifications of marijuana.
In an earlier interview, President Biden said he was still working on his campaign pledge to release everyone convicted of marijuana offenses by the federal government.
“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in a video. “It’s legal in many states, and criminal records for marijuana possession have led to needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. And that’s before you address the racial disparities around who suffers the consequences. While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”
Last month, President Biden and Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor, John Fetterman, met and talked about the legalization of marijuana, which is one of Fetterman’s main campaign promises as he seeks the Pennsylvania US Senate seat.
Biden urged more state governors to pardon state convictions for simple marijuana possession, which could see thousands more people released from prison. Twenty states in the country, plus Washington, DC and two US territories, have decriminalized marijuana possession.
The presidential pardon will, however, not affect everyone as it only applies to people convicted of simple marijuana possession. The people the pardon applies to are not currently in jail; no one is incarcerated for only possessing a small amount of marijuana.
The pardon comes just before the midterms, hoping that the changes to marijuana laws would help Democrats get more voters, especially younger voters.
President Biden’s decision came after a long period of deliberations between him and his White House aides as the president has been apprehensive about fully decriminalizing marijuana. Despite his views on the drug, he made his decision after arguments about the lack of justice and fairness in marijuana possession convictions, especially among people of color.
In his statement, Biden said that some federal and local laws about marijuana, like trafficking, marketing, and selling to children, would stay the same, even if marijuana is de-scheduled.
Even after many US states have legalized the recreational use of marijuana, the drug is still illegal under federal law. Marijuana’s Schedule 1 status means that the federal government does not accept it for medical use.
President Biden announced the marijuana presidential pardon via a tweet on October 6, saying that many people’s lives have been ruined for having a drug that has been legalized in many states. Racial disparities in marijuana convictions are stark, he added. However, it is unclear how long the federal review of marijuana’s drug schedule classification will take.
The Justice Department will oversee the presidential pardon, and everyone who qualifies for it will get certifications showing they are free from prosecution or criminal record.
Advocates for the legalization of marijuana have lobbied for years but to no avail. Some want the government to stop listing marijuana as a narcotic and treat it as a plant.
With the growing number of young people supporting marijuana legalization, it will inevitably happen sometime in the future.
