President Joe Biden could boost the economy and promote racial equity with the \u201cstroke of a pen\u201d by granting clemency to people with federal marijuana convictions, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) says.<\/p>\n
During an interview on Pod Save America, the senator talked about how the president could use his executive authority to affect immediate changes with respect to cannabis policy and student loan debt. Both issues intersect with social justice and the economy, she said.<\/p>\n
While Warren started by saying that Biden could \u201chelp close the black-white wealth gap\u201d by cancelling student debt himself, she said marijuana is the \u201csame kind of issue\u201d that he could address with unilateral action.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want him to expunge the records. I want him to let people out. If you\u2019re a non-violent offender [and] all they\u2019ve got on you is a marijuana charge, let folks go,\u201d she said. \u201cStates have changed their laws on this. We\u2019ve finally admitted, this idea that going after marijuana in a war on drugs, gateway drugs\u2014we just realized it never made any sense scientifically and was a way to really engage in a form of oppression of communities of color.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nWarren, who led other senators on a letter to the president earlier this month<\/a> calling on him to grant a mass pardon for people with cannabis convictions, expanded on the idea that presidential clemency would increase economic opportunities in the country.<\/p>\n People granted relief would \u201cget to participate in our economy. They have a better chance at getting jobs. They have a better chance of getting promotions. They can apply for scholarships that would otherwise be denied to them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words, what your best resource as a nation? It\u2019s your people\u2014people who should be part of our economy, part of our society,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n Warren also emphasized that \u201cmarijuana enforcement has fallen much harder on people of color, and it\u2019s time for us to acknowledge that and just admit the error of our ways.\u201d<\/p>\n .@ewarren<\/a> on using executive privilege to cancel student loan debt and legalize marijuana: \u201cThis is the single best opportunity for the president of the United States to close the Black\/white wealth gap.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/auboy4cTtR<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Pod Save America (@PodSaveAmerica) November 19, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cBack it up, turn it loose. So there we are, Joe Biden: two things you could do for our economy, for racial justice. Just need your signature on two different pieces,\u201d she said<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Biden, cancel that student loan debt. You can do this and get rid of these marijuana convictions,\u201d the senator added. \u201cThis is not making us a stronger country. It is undercutting our economy and it\u2019s undercutting racial justice in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n In a separate interview with MSNBC this week, Warren said that \u201cthe war on drugs put a lot of people behind bars for doing nothing more than smoking marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLet\u2019s expunge those records,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are people who have every right to get a good job, every right to apply for college loans.\u201d<\/p>\n A recently published Congressional Research Service (CRS) report affirmed that the president has it within his power to\u00a0grant 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 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 The House Judiciary Committee in September approved a bill to federally legalize marijuana<\/a>, and Senate leadership is in the process of finalizing their own reform proposal<\/a>. Meanwhile, several Republican members of Congress introduced a bill on Monday to\u00a0federally legalize and tax marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n Warren and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) separately\u00a0sent 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 Marijuana Activists Push Governors To Request Federal Protections For Interstate Commerce<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo element courtesy of Gage Skidmore<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Elizabeth Warren Pushes Biden To Do Mass Marijuana Pardons With The \u2018Stroke Of A Pen\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden could boost the economy and promote racial equity with the \u201cstroke of a pen\u201d by granting clemency to people with federal marijuana convictions, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) says. During an interview on Pod Save America, the senator talked about how the president could use his executive authorityContinue 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":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51257"}],"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=51257"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51257\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51258,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51257\/revisions\/51258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Elizabeth Warren Pushes Biden To Do Mass Marijuana Pardons With The \u2018Stroke Of A Pen\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"