Joe Biden ordered the departments of justice, health and labor to examine whether cannabis should not be reclassified in a less dangerous category.
The US President Joe Biden has pardoned thousands Americans who were convicted for marijuana possession on Thursday. It was a significant step towards destigmatizing this drug and fulfilling a promise to supporters one month prior to midterm elections.
Biden announced that he would pardon all previous federal offenses relating to simple possession.
Biden said that while he did not advocate for completely decriminalizing cannabis use, he believed that “limitations on marketing, trafficking, and under-age sales should remain in place.”
Instead, he hid in the individual possession and use of a substance estimated to have been used by at least 18% of the population by 2019, according to government health authorities. This substance is already legal in multiple states for medical or recreational purposes.
Biden ordered the departments of justice (and health) to examine whether cannabis should not be reclassified in a less dangerous category.
Reporters were told by officials that approximately 6,500 people are directly impacted by federal marijuana statutes violations. Clemency will be extended to thousands more who are convicted under federal marijuana laws.
Biden’s gesture however aims to make the shift even more radical, and to put pressure on all state authorities to follow his lead.
“I’m urging all governors in regard to state offenses to follow my lead. Biden stated that, just as marijuana possession should not be a reason for a federal prison, so should state offenses.
– Political Impact –
The White House made the announcement abruptly via video and in writing, without any prior preparations.
However, Biden is likely to have a significant legal and political impact, allowing him to control the narrative about a trend toward criminalization that large parts of the country have already adopted.
Biden is now satisfied with a key demand by racial justice advocates angered about the way cannabis laws are enforced often against ethnic minorities ahead of the November 8 midterms.
“As I repeatedly stated during my campaign for President, no one should be imprisoned for just possessing or using marijuana. Biden stated that sending people into prison for possessing marijuana has caused too many people to die and that it is unacceptable for people to be incarcerated for behavior that many states do not prohibit.
He stated that marijuana possession convictions are more damaging to non-whites than the sentences for other crimes. These can include jail time and years of legal consequences, making it difficult to find work and education.
The third initiative was to instruct federal justice and federal health officials to review “expeditiously” how marijuana is classified under federal law.
Federal law currently includes marijuana alongside other drugs that are widely recognized as being far more dangerous than heroin and LSD. It is in a class higher than the highly addictive and modern drugs fentanyl, methamphetamine.
Chuck Schumer is a Senate leader, who is a key ally of Biden and wants to keep the chamber under Democratic control in Nov. Schumer said that the president’s recognition that the “war against drugs” was “a war on people, particularly people of colour,” made it clear that the president’s action acknowledged this.
Derrick Johnson is the president of NAACP. This civil rights organization is a leader in its field.
