A coalition of six U.S. senators are renewing their call for the Biden administration to deschedule marijuana and grant mass pardons for people with federal cannabis convictions, calling the Justice Department\u2019s response to an earlier request for action \u201cextraordinarily disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a letter that was sent to President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra on Wednesday, the senators made a dual request: first, that the attorney general work independently to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and second, that the president issue mass clemency for people with non-violent federal marijuana convictions.<\/p>\n
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ed Markey (D-MA) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) signed the new letter.<\/p>\n
The senators said that DOJ took six months to respond to a previous October 2021 letter urging the attorney general to use his authority to unilaterally start the process of federally descheduling marijuana. The \u201chalf-page response\u201d was \u201cextraordinarily disappointing,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n
In its April 2022 response letter, DOJ cited the fact that HHS has yet to determine that cannabis is a safe and effective therapeutic treatment option. The senators said the agency used that \u201cas the sole rationale for the DOJ\u2019s lack of action\u201d which \u201cignores the ability of the DOJ and Drug Enforcement Administration to begin the descsheduling process and act independently of an HHS determination.\u201d<\/p>\n
The senators explained how Garland is actually empowered under the CSA to request an HHS scientific review of cannabis. A subsequent descheduling recommendation would be binding on DOJ; but even if the recommendation is to keep cannabis in Schedule I or move it to a lower schedule, that\u2019s not binding on the attorney general, who could then start a rulemaking process to remove marijuana from the CSA altogether.<\/p>\n
\u201cPut simply, the DOJ need not wait on any HHS determination to begin this process,\u201d they wrote<\/a>. \u201cMoreover, it is obvious that cannabis has widely accepted medical benefits, affirmed by medical and scientific communities both here and across the globe.\u201d<\/p>\n The letter also talks about the \u201cwidespread public support for cannabis legalization\u201d and the \u201ceconomic, racial-justice, public safety, and health benefits\u201d that states have seen after legalizing cannabis. Further, the senators referenced Biden\u2019s unfulfilled campaign pledges to decriminalize marijuana, expunge prior cannabis records and reschedule the plant under the CSA.<\/p>\n Then the letter turns to the issue of mass clemency for people with federal marijuana convictions. Several senators, including Warren and Markey, had sent a letter to president in November 2021<\/a> calling on Biden to grant blanket pardons to the thousands of people with federal cannabis convictions on their records. But to date, the administration has not sent a response.<\/p>\n The senators said in the new letter that Biden\u2019s initial action to grant clemency to 78 people<\/a>, including some with marijuana records, was commendable\u2014but \u201cmuch more has to be done to address the racist and harmful legacy of cannabis policies on Black and Brown communities.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe legacy of the war on drugs is pervasive,\u201d they said, citing reports on racial disparities in marijuana enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Administration\u2019s failure to coordinate a timely review of its cannabis policy is harming thousands of Americans, slowing research, and depriving Americans of their ability to use marijuana for medical or other purposes,\u201d the senators said. \u201cWe ask that the Biden Administration act quickly to rectify this decade long injustice harming individuals, especially Black and Brown communities.\u201d<\/p>\n The recently appointed U.S. pardon attorney weighed in on the prospects of mass cannabis clemency<\/a> last week, telling Marijuana Moment that her office handles cases independently, but it could be empowered to issue broader commutations or pardons if directed by the president.<\/p>\n Biden has received about a dozen\u00a0letters<\/a>\u00a0from<\/a>\u00a0lawmakers<\/a>,\u00a0advocates<\/a>, celebrities and people impacted by criminalization to\u00a0do something<\/a>\u00a0about the people who remain behind federal bars over cannabis.<\/p>\n At a House Judiciary Committee oversight hearing in May, Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) and other Democratic lawmakers stressed the need for reforming the federal clemency process<\/a>, calling for applications to be streamlined to make it easier for people with non-violent federal drug convictions to get relief.<\/p>\n Late last year, a coalition of congressional lawmakers introduced the Fair and Independent Experts in Clemency (FIX Clemency) Act, a bill that would\u00a0take clemency review away from the Justice Department<\/a>\u00a0and instead establish an independent board appointed by the president.<\/p>\n A report published by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) last year 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 The White House has been asked about the issue several times. Former Press Secretary Jen Psaki had said that the president has \u201cevery intention of using his clemency power\u201d and is \u201clooking at\u201d relief for non-violent drug offenders.<\/p>\n Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), said last month that the Biden administration is \u201cmonitoring\u201d states that have legalized marijuana<\/a>\u00a0to inform federal policy, recognizing the failures of the current prohibitionist approach.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) recently asked the attorney general about any plans to revive the prior guidance at a hearing and in a follow-up letter<\/a>. Garland said in response that\u00a0the Justice Department is \u201cexamining\u201d marijuana policy<\/a>\u00a0and will be addressing the issue \u201cin the days ahead,\u201d but he didn\u2019t directly comment on reinstating a specific memo.<\/p>\n A bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers filed a bill in April that would direct the attorney general to create a commission charged with making recommendations on a regulatory system for marijuana<\/a>\u00a0that models what\u2019s currently in place for alcohol.<\/p>\n Reps. Dave Joyce (R-OH), Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and Brian Mast (R-FL) teamed up on what\u2019s titled the Preparing Regulators Effectively for a Post-Prohibition Adult-Use Regulated Environment Act (PREPARE) Act\u2014an incremental reform meant to inform comprehensive cannabis policy changes in the future.<\/p>\n On Tuesday, a coalition of current and former marijuana regulators sent a letter to the Biden administration<\/a>, imploring officials to instate updated guidance to federal prosecutors on cannabis enforcement priorities as an interim step while Congress considers broader legislation to end prohibition.<\/p>\n In April, the House for the second time\u00a0passed a comprehensive legalization bill<\/a>, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. On the Senate side, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and colleagues are working to finalize similar legislation, which they plan to file ahead of the August recess.<\/p>\n High-level talks are reportedly underway for an alternative, and arguably more passable, approach, with bicameral and bipartisan lawmakers discussing the possibility of moving\u00a0a package of incremental cannabis reform measures<\/a>\u00a0that would stop short of descheduling marijuana.<\/p>\n Separately, several Republican members of Congress\u00a0introduced a bill last November to federally legalize and tax marijuana<\/a>\u00a0as an alternative to far-reaching Democratic-led reform proposals and scaled-down GOP cannabis descheduling legislation.<\/p>\n Read the senator\u2019s new letter<\/a> on marijuana clemency and descheduling, as well as DOJ\u2019s initial response, below:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n Marijuana Regulators Coalition Pushes Biden Administration For Updated Federal Enforcement Guidance<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Senators Blast Biden Administration\u2019s \u2018Extraordinarily Disappointing\u2019 Marijuana Stance<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A coalition of six U.S. senators are renewing their call for the Biden administration to deschedule marijuana and grant mass pardons for people with federal cannabis convictions, calling the Justice Department\u2019s response to an earlier request for action \u201cextraordinarily disappointing.\u201d In a letter that was sent to President Joe Biden,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\/55700"}],"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=55700"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55701,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55700\/revisions\/55701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\nRead More: Senators Blast Biden Administration\u2019s \u2018Extraordinarily Disappointing\u2019 Marijuana Stance<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"