Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he will pardon all individuals who have been convicted federally of simple marijuana possession and will order his administration to revisit how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
“As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit,” Biden said in a statement.
“First, I am announcing a pardon of all prior Federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana. I have directed the Attorney General to develop an administrative process for the issuance of certificates of pardon to eligible individuals. There are thousands of people who have prior Federal convictions for marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My action will help relieve the collateral consequences arising from these convictions,” the statement continues.
First: I’m pardoning all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. There are thousands of people who were previously convicted of simple possession who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My pardon will remove this burden.
— President Biden (@POTUS) October 6, 2022
Biden also announced that he will be urging all governors across the U.S. to issue pardons for simple state-level marijuana possession charges.
“Second, I am urging all Governors to do the same with regard to state offenses. Just as no one should be in a Federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” Biden said.
Biden will instruct his HHS Secretary and the Attorney General to “initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.”
“Federal law currently classifies marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the classification meant for the most dangerous substances. This is the same schedule as for heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine – the drugs that are driving our overdose epidemic,” Biden said.
The president stressed that even with the new changes with state and federal regulations, limitations on trafficking, marketing, and under-age marijuana sales should remain as they are.
This news and commentary by Andrew White originally appeared on Valiant News.
Comments 4
For the first time I agree with the very corrupt, very demented usurper!!!!! Dementia has been as waste of space in government for 50 years and has been wrong on everything he has done but he is right on this one!!!!! Simple possession of marijuana SHOULD NOT destroy a person’s life, especially when dangerous drugs, like fentanyl, carry a lower danger classification!!!!!!!!!!
So you side with the Devil because it makes you feel good? The reason why “simple” possession guarantees prison is the death and destruction wrought by the drug dealers, gangs, and cartels. As a user, they are DIRECTLY funding all of that violence, death and mayhem. If you hire illegal aliens that have been trafficked, are you not also supporting that trafficking industry? Yes, you would be. The authorities go after people who host child porn, even if those people don’t actually participate in those lewd acts with minors. They are an integral part of the entire child molestation problem in the world. Same with illicit drug users. If there were no users, the cartels and gangs would have stayed thieves and robbers. And don’t think for one minute that “legalization” of cannabis has stopped the cartels and gangs one bit. Now that their bread and butter bottom line has been trifled with, they are now focusing more on the much worse stuff. And don’t count out their new business partners, the US Politicians.
This is the Truth. You can accept that this is very real, now, or have it hit you square between the eyes in the not so distant future.
You make some excellent points!
Stop the dope legalization scam! It has nothing to do with the “liberties of adults” and everything to do with social decay. Has anyone stop to wonder why America’s young adults and teenage youth don’t care to work anymore? It has nothing to do with that Corvid nonsense. Quit a bit of this malaise is connected with the huge increase in easy access to illicit drugs. Pot IS mildly addictive with sporadic use. That is why people continue to use it. Those who use it often as straight up addicted. Not as bad as tobacco because it has yet to become socially acceptable as tobacco once was. That acceptability came about by heavy marketing campaigns, including Hollywood which had a cigarette in the hand of every leading Lady and Man. You were made to believe that everyone smokes because it was good for you and satisfying. It made you look cool, respected, alluring and wanted. Cannabis is NO DIFFERENT. It is the new tobacco, being heavily marketed and promoted by a group of people seeking to profit by this “legalization”, mainly politicians. And cannabis is not safe, as the snake oil folks proclaim. Heavy use by people up to their mid-20s can and does cause brain damage. That is PROVEN medical science. Cannabis edibles have been putting people, and a number of children, into the ER for gastrointestinal distress, heart palpitations, and shortness of breath. Still more, there are some whom cannabis, in all of its forms, is rather toxic towards their bodies. Myself, it makes me extremely ill and in pain whenever I am exposed to it. Worse for me as people that vape it. Even that “safe and all-natural” CBD can injure me to the point that I have to go to the ER.
As they say with alcohol, it is a disease. Let us not allow this disease to run rampant because unscrupulous persons (politicians) want to profit from those that have to get high to get by.