On drug policy, President Joe Biden is indisputably now one of the most consequential politicians in American history.<\/p>\n
Demonized as one of the War on Drugs\u2019 chief architects for sponsoring the 1994 crime bill that filled U.S. prisons with nonviolent drug offenders<\/a>\u2014a record that aged so badly even Vice President (and former prosecutor) Kamala Harris, attacked him<\/a> on it\u2014Biden on October 6 took the largest step<\/a> of any US president toward legalizing cannabis.<\/p>\n In mid-afternoon tweets<\/a> and a subsequent video, Biden borrowed a line drug-war reformists have been using for decades, calling current federal cannabis policy a \u201cfailed approach.\u201d He announced pardons for \u201call prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession,\u201d and called on state governors to do the same for state charges (most cannabis arrests are for violations of state law).<\/p>\n He directed the Cabinet-level agencies overseeing federal health and criminal-justice policy to review cannabis\u2019s classification under the Controlled Substances Act\u2014currently Schedule I, \u201cthe same level as heroin\u2014and more serious than fentanyl,\u201d Biden observed. \u201cIt makes no sense.\u201d He acknowledged \u201cthe clear racial disparities around prosecution and conviction.\u201d And he hinted at more changes to come.<\/p>\n \u201cSending people to jail for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives\u2013for conduct that is legal in many states,\u201d he said. \u201cToday, we begin to right these wrongs.\u201d<\/p>\n Critics pointed out that the announcement does nothing for most people in trouble for cannabis. There are only an estimated 6,000 people in the federal penal system for cannabis possession, and Biden\u2019s pardon won\u2019t be extended to people convicted of cultivation or sales.<\/p>\n Further, full legalization is still years away, and is at serious risk if the White House or Congress swing to the Republicans. It will almost certainly require action from a Congress that\u2019s proven near deadlocked on the issue to date, according to legal experts contacted by Cannabis Now.<\/p>\n Cynics also pointed out the timing: October, a month out from crucial midterm elections, the perfect time for an empty publicity stunt that\u2019s more posturing than policy.<\/p>\n But the historic moment is still here. Just by observing the federal government\u2019s classification of cannabis is absurd and wrong and by directing Cabinet-level agencies to investigating changing it, Joe Biden has now done more on cannabis than any president since Richard Nixon. Period.<\/p>\n \u201cDank Brandon,\u201d<\/a> the president\u2019s weed-smoking meme alter ego, has arrived in reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call the announcement symbolic,\u201d said Scott Bloomberg, a law professor at the University of Maine who researches cannabis policy.<\/p>\n Scholars such as Bloomberg and Vanderbilt University\u2019s Robert Mikos have taken a dim view of the line pushed by some legalization advocates that a president could legalize or reschedule solely through executive action\u2014at least not without triggering challenges in the courts.<\/p>\n Instead, what Biden has is the bully pulpit. What he can do\u2014and what he appears to be doing\u2014is give Congress cover to change federal drug policy by producing scientific and legal arguments justifying that action. If Health and Human Services issues an opinion that Schedule I, which classifies cannabis as addictive and medically useless, is inappropriate, and if the Justice Department produces its own opinion that enforcing federal cannabis policy is impossible on the aggregate and harmful when harsh penalties are applied, then Congress should have an even easier time rescheduling.<\/p>\n \u201cThe President can\u2019t wave a magic wand and legalize marijuana overnight; he has to use the power that Congress gave to the Executive Branch in the [Controlled Substances Act],\u201d he said. Further, \u201cpardoning marijuana possession offenders is an incredibly important and impactful thing to do. Encouraging governors to do the same is also incredibly important, as most marijuana offenders are in state prison systems.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis is the process that I think should take place, that should have taken place at least a decade ago,\u201d added Douglas A. Berman<\/a>, a law professor at Ohio State University\u2019s Moritz College of Law and the executive director of the school\u2019s Drug Enforcement and Policy Center.<\/p>\n And while President Biden may rightly be criticized by history for being slow to catch up with current science or even sound moral policy, politically speaking, this was probably the first opportunity, he added.<\/p>\n Congress needed to demonstrate that it couldn\u2019t be trusted to pass meaningful legislation. Even relatively modest reforms like bills that would give cannabis businesses easier access to banks is hopelessly bottled up in an obstructionist Senate, where at least ten Republicans are needed to pass cannabis reform\u2014and that\u2019s if every Democrat is on board, which they are not.<\/p>\n In Berman\u2019s view, Biden couldn\u2019t realistically pursue championing cannabis reform before addressing issues that affect more Americans, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, runaway inflation and surging energy prices\u2014issues also connected to international crises such as the unprovoked war in Ukraine and an increasingly tense nuclear standoff with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n \u201cCannabis is just not first cut stuff,\u201d Berman said. \u201cI think he\u2019s doing what he can.\u201d<\/p>\n President Biden\u2019s announcement was welcomed with open arms by the cannabis industry and its otherwise bearish investors as a rare example of good news in an otherwise dire period marked by enormous losses, cratering prices, a thriving illicit market and impossible state and federal taxes and regulations.<\/p>\n Stocks in publicly traded companies surged<\/a> briefly Thursday on the news before settling down again on Friday. Press releases from c-suite types peppered reporters\u2019 inboxes, praising Biden\u2019s bold turn before turning the conversation back to material concerns like the stalled SAFE Banking Act. Which is to say: after Thursday\u2019s high, Friday marked a return to earth and the difficult business of lawmaking along with a long list of unanswered questions.<\/p>\n The scheduling review could take six months to a year, by which time the Democratic Party may no longer be in control of Congress. The scheduling review could also likely produce recommendations cannabis advocates won\u2019t like including separate schedules for CBD and high-THC products such as dabs, which could remain tightly controlled, suggested OSU\u2019s Berman.<\/p>\n And the realities of actually legalizing cannabis\u2014how to tax it, who to regulate it\u2014are incredibly complex. These could take another presidential term to sort out, said Pat Oglesby, a former Congressional staffer and tax-policy expert who sat on California Governor Gavin Newsom\u2019s blue-ribbon marijuana legalization panel.<\/p>\n \u201cThere hasn\u2019t been much of a process\u201d on legalization in Congress to date,\u201d Oglesby said. \u201cI think this is going to take a while, and if the Republicans win the House or the Senate, legalization is very likely out of the picture for the next two years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis isn\u2019t legalization, but it\u2019s a big step. It\u2019s showing the flag,\u201d he added. \u201cIt\u2019s a real sign to Congress that, look, it\u2019s time to get moving.\u201d And it\u2019s the first sign from a president in many current voters\u2019 lifetimes.<\/p>\n The post President Biden Sets Federal Cannabis Legalization in Motion<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
On drug policy, President Joe Biden is indisputably now one of the most consequential politicians in American history. Demonized as one of the War on Drugs\u2019 chief architects for sponsoring the 1994 crime bill that filled U.S. prisons with nonviolent drug offenders\u2014a record that aged so badly even Vice PresidentContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,83,9750,11199,4211,65,81,7565,16438,16057,16540,97],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57398"}],"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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57398"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57398\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57399,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57398\/revisions\/57399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}More Than Words<\/strong><\/h4>\n
So Now What?<\/strong><\/h4>\n
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\nRead More: President Biden Sets Federal Cannabis Legalization in Motion<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"