A group of senators is urging President Joe Biden to use his executive authority to grant a mass pardon for people with non-violent marijuana convictions, a first step toward righting the wrongs of prohibition.<\/p>\n
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) led the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR). It calls on the president to \u201cpardon all individuals convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses, whether formerly or currently incarcerated.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the 1970s, President Nixon launched the War on Drugs over the objections of his own advisors and experts, spawning mass incarceration policies with devastating effects on Black and Brown families,\u201d the senators wrote in the letter, which was sent on Tuesday. \u201cToday, despite legalization efforts across the country and roughly equal cannabis usage rates, Black Americans are still nearly four times as likely to be arrested for cannabis possession as white Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Criminalization is \u201cincreasingly out of step with the views of the American public,\u201d they said, noting public polling that shows strong, majority support for legalization<\/a>, as well as the expansion of the state-level reform movement.<\/p>\n \u201cOur country\u2019s cannabis policies must be completely overhauled, but you have the power to act now: you can and should issue a blanket pardon for all non-violent federal cannabis offenses, fulfilling your promises to the American people and transforming the lives of tens of thousands Americans,\u201d the letter, first noted<\/a> by Politico, states.<\/p>\n The senators referenced comments Biden made during his presidential campaign, when he voiced support for decriminalizing marijuana and expunging prior records.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Constitution grants you the authority to pardon broad classes of Americans to correct widespread injustice, as previous Presidents have done. Most importantly, such a pardon\u2014combined with your leadership on an accessible expungement process to formally clear the criminal records of those affected\u2014would mark the beginning of a reversal of decades of ineffective and discriminatory cannabis policies, allowing Americans to return to their communities, find housing and jobs, and rebuild their lives without the burdens of an unjustly imposed criminal record.\u201d<\/p>\n A recently published Congressional Research Service (CRS) report affirmed that the president has it within his power to grant mass pardons for cannabis offenses<\/a>. It also said that the administration can move to federally legalize cannabis without waiting for lawmakers to act.<\/p>\n \u201cWe urge you to act swiftly on behalf of the countless Americans punished by the country\u2019s senseless cannabis laws,\u201d the senators\u2019 letter concludes.<\/p>\n Relatedly, a\u00a0group of more than 150 celebrities, athletes, politicians, law enforcement professionals and academics\u00a0signed a letter that was delivered to Biden<\/a>\u00a0in September, urging him to issue a \u201cfull, complete and unconditional pardon\u201d to all people with non-violent federal marijuana convictions.<\/p>\n That letter came just as the administration started encouraging about\u00a01,000 people who were temporarily placed on home confinement for federal drug offenses<\/a>\u00a0to fill out clemency application forms.<\/p>\n Early in his administration, Biden received a letter from 37 members of Congress that\u00a0called on him to use executive authority<\/a>\u00a0to mass pardon all people with non-violent federal marijuana convictions.<\/p>\n The ask for this unique form of presidential clemency is modeled on actions taken by Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter in the 1970s to categorically forgive Americans who avoided the draft for the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n At the same time that this trio of senators is pushing for a blanket pardon, lawmakers in both chambers are hoping to advance comprehensive legislation to end prohibition.<\/p>\n A key House committee in September\u00a0voted in favor of a bill to federally legalize cannabis<\/a>, and Senate leadership is separately\u00a0working on marijuana reform legislation<\/a>. A separate forthcoming Republican-led comprehensive legalization bill<\/a> is expected to be introduced soon in the House.<\/p>\n Warren and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) separately sent a letter to the attorney general last month<\/a>, making the case that the Justice Department should initiate a marijuana descheduling process in order to \u201callow states to regulate cannabis as they see fit, begin to remedy the harm caused by decades of racial disparities in enforcement of cannabis laws, and facilitate valuable medical research.\u201d<\/p>\n Read the new letter<\/a> to Biden on mass pardons for marijuana cases below:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Click to access 2021119-letter-to-potus-on-cannabis-pardons.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n Two Dozen Governors Call On Congress To Pass Marijuana Banking Reform Through Defense Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Senators Urge Biden To Grant Mass Pardon For Thousands Of Marijuana Cases<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A group of senators is urging President Joe Biden to use his executive authority to grant a mass pardon for people with non-violent marijuana convictions, a first step toward righting the wrongs of prohibition. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) led the letter, which was also signed by Sens. Ed Markey (D-MA)Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51082,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51081\/revisions\/51082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Senators Urge Biden To Grant Mass Pardon For Thousands Of Marijuana Cases<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"