President Joseph Biden recently said that his administration is \u201cworking on\u201d his goal to release federal marijuana prisoners, although he failed to provide details or set a timeline to enact a cannabis clemency plan for those behind bars for marijuana convictions. Biden made the comments after Marine 1, the presidential helicopter, landed on the south lawn of the White House on July 16. During brief remarks to the press, a reporter asked the president if he\u2019d be honoring his campaign pledge to release all the marijuana inmates in prison?<\/p>\n
Biden replied that he doesn\u2019t think that \u201canyone should be in prison for the use of marijuana.\u00a0\u00a0We\u2019re working on the Crime Bill now,\u201d according to an\u00a0official White House transcript<\/a>\u00a0of the exchange. It\u2019s unclear which legislation the president was referring to, however.<\/p>\n While campaigning for the presidency in 2020,\u00a0Biden said that<\/a>\u00a0\u201canyone who has a [marijuana] record should be let out of jail\u201d\u00a0and pledged to<\/a>\u00a0\u201cbroadly use his clemency power for certain non-violent and drug crimes.\u201d Biden has also said that while he doesn\u2019t plan to end the federal prohibition on recreational marijuana, he\u2019d support the decriminalization of possession of small amounts of cannabis.<\/p>\n Only two days earlier, just before Biden reiterated his cannabis policy, the cannabis clemency advocacy group The Weldon Project and the National Cannabis Roundtable announced the launch of the Cannabis Clemency Campaign, an initiative that will encourage the Biden Administration and Congress to advance policies that would grant cannabis clemency to qualifying individuals who have been convicted on federal marijuana charges.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough cannabis clemency, President Biden has an opportunity to deliver justice for the thousands of Americans who have been impacted by federal marijuana prohibition and punitive sentencing practices,\u201d\u00a0said Weldon Angelos<\/a>, co-founder of organization. \u201cThis would fulfill one of President Biden\u2019s campaign pledges and send a powerful message about this Administration\u2019s dedication to criminal justice reform. I\u2019m proud to formally launch this campaign alongside the National Cannabis Roundtable and look forward to working together to redress the harm done by federal marijuana prohibition.\u201d<\/p>\n In April 2022, the president issued three pardons and commuted the sentences of 78 nonviolent drug offenders, although only nine cases were related to cannabis,\u00a0according to a report<\/a>\u00a0from Marijuana Moment. But so far, the administration has yet to announce a comprehensive plan to release cannabis prisoners. Ellen Mellody, vice president at cannabis public relations agency Mattio Communications, is a former spokesperson for the 2008 Obama-Biden campaign. She said that the president is \u201cdropping the ball\u201d on the issue of cannabis clemency.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s easy to get caught up in the politics of the issue and forget that what we are really \u2018debating\u2019 is a policy that is based on lies,\u201d Mellody wrote in an email to Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n \u201cThe American people continue to be far ahead of President Biden and their elected officials when it comes to supporting the overturning of outdated policies. However, Biden hasn\u2019t put his full weight behind expungement, legalization or even doing the very basics such as bringing back the Cole memo,\u201d a federal policy that protected medical marijuana companies operating legally under state law from interference by federal law enforcement agencies. In 2018, the Cole memo was rescinded by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s extremely rare to have 68% of Americans agree on a policy, but today, that\u2019s how many Americans support legalization in the US. Yet, Biden and other elected officials on both sides of the aisle have often ignored or laughed off their constituents largely due to education gaps about what these policies mean for Americans and their families,\u201d Mellody said. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve found is that the more educated the elected official is on cannabis, the more they see how cruel criminal cannabis prohibition is. While this step is better than no action at all, Biden should start asking hard questions and stand up for the rights of Americans. If he did that, he\u2019d be guaranteed to stand on the right side of history.\u201d<\/p>\n Khari Edwards, head of corporate relations for Florida-based cannabis multistate operator Ayr Wellness, said that it seems natural for President Biden to follow through on his promise of cannabis clemency, noting that support for \u201ccannabis and criminal justice reform has never been higher.\u201d He added that he believes that the legal cannabis industry has a moral obligation to help those who have been disproportionately affected by cannabis prohibition and enforcement.<\/p>\n \u201cWith licensed businesses now able to legally engage in the cultivation and sale of cannabis, we find it wrong that others continue to sit behind bars for doing the same thing we do legally today,\u201d Edward wrote in an email. \u201cWe believe the cannabis industry should collectively stand together to help others and be part of the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n The post President Biden \u2018Working On\u2019 Releasing Cannabis Prisoners<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
President Joseph Biden recently said that his administration is \u201cworking on\u201d his goal to release federal marijuana prisoners, although he failed to provide details or set a timeline to enact a cannabis clemency plan for those behind bars for marijuana convictions. Biden made the comments after Marine 1, the presidentialContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":381,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,16355,7252,3249,65,81,14846,16356,16357],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56103"}],"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\/381"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56103"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56103\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56104,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56103\/revisions\/56104"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56103"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56103"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56103"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Pardons Issued in April<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: President Biden \u2018Working On\u2019 Releasing Cannabis Prisoners<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"