The White House drug czar is touting President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201chistoric\u201d move to issue a mass marijuana pardon and direct an administrative review of the drug\u2019s scheduling status. And he is again highlighting that there are \u201cclearly\u201d medical benefits of cannabis\u2014which he says shouldn\u2019t be ignored because of separate concerns about youth use.<\/p>\n
During an interview with The Washington Post on Wednesday, Rahul Gupta, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), also spoke about the way federal marijuana prohibition has impeded scientific research. And he addressed a variety of other drug policy issues\u2014including broader drug harm reduction services and cannabis decriminalization.<\/p>\n
He made a point to applaud the president for pardoning people who\u2019ve committed federal marijuana possession offenses and again said that the Justice Department and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will \u201cexpeditiously\u201d carry out a scheduling review per Biden\u2019s instructions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat the president has announced is historic in nature,\u201d Gupta said. \u201cNo one before in the history of United States has made those proclamations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe official acknowledged the limitations of the pardon proclamation, however, stating that the \u201cbulk\u201d of marijuana cases play out at the state-level, which is why it\u2019s important that Biden called on governors to follow the administration\u2019s lead with further cannabis clemency action.<\/p>\n
Asked whether the presidential pardons represent a step toward decriminalizing cannabis, Gupta said that \u201cthis is a certainly a step that the president believes deeply in\u2014he believes that people should not be arrested or convicted for sole possession or use of marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that taking steps to provide relief to people who\u2019ve been criminalized over marijuana is part of the administration\u2019s efforts to \u201clook at our justice policies from an equity lens,\u201d saying that Black people are on average four times more likely to face marijuana arrests despite comparable rates of usage across races.<\/p>\n
Gupta, who previously\u00a0worked to implement a state medical cannabis program<\/a> while serving as a West Virginia health commissioner, also reiterated that \u201cclearly data is behind certain medical uses<\/a> for cannabis.\u201d<\/p>\n Notably, he said that there\u2019s also \u201cplenty of evidence\u201d that underage marijuana use is associated with cognitive development issues. However, \u201cthat doesn\u2019t nullify the medical benefits that have been documented in science over the years.\u201d<\/p>\n The drug czar also said that cannabis\u2019s federally restricted status has made it hard to study, a point that legalization advocates have made for years.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of this is developing science. I mean, there\u2019s been bans on marijuana, and that\u2019s resulted in a deficiency of literature and science and scientific research behind it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I\u2019m glad that we\u2019re able to see more science develop, so we will get closer to the truth that, to me as a scientist, is really important to know, \u2018hey, what are the facts, both good and bad?\u2019 So we can make good, sound policy based on that data.\u201d<\/p>\n The director\u2019s consistent stance on the therapeutic benefits of cannabis and the consequences of criminalization are all the more notable given that he\u2019s statutorily obligated to advocate against legalizing Schedule I drugs and he\u2019s repeatedly declined opportunities to do so.<\/p>\n During Wednesday\u2019s interview, Gupta also weighed in on broader drug harm reduction policy, stressing the importance of providing expanded access to naloxone and fentanyl testing strips to mitigate the overdose crisis.<\/p>\n But when asked about California Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s (D) veto of a bill to authorize a pilot program<\/a> for safe consumption sites where people could use currently illicit drugs in a medically supervised environment, the official simply said that policy should follow \u201cscience, research and data.\u201d He declined to comment further given that the federal government is in active litigation over a Philadelphia non-profits attempt to open a harm reduction center.<\/p>\n Before the president\u2019s cannabis pardon announcement, the drug czar said over the summer that the Biden administration is \u201cmonitoring\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the state-level cannabis legalization movement.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Biden touted his cannabis clemency action, saying that he\u2019s \u201cchanged the lives of thousands of people.\u201d<\/p>\n But as activists push for further relief, the president seems to be drawing a line in the sand at simple cannabis possession, separately signaling last week that he\u00a0would not extend pardons to people who sold marijuana<\/a>.<\/p>\n He said that he\u2019s \u201ckeeping my promise that no one should be in jail for merely using or possessing marijuana\u201d and \u201cthe records, which hold up people from being able to get jobs and the like, should be totally expunged. Totally expunged.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t sell it,\u201d the president added. \u201cBut if it\u2019s just use, you\u2019re completely free.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s a problem from advocates\u2019 perspective. Biden might have pardoned\u00a0about 6,500 people who\u2019ve committed marijuana possession offenses<\/a>\u00a0at the federal level, plus those who\u2019ve violated the law in Washington, D.C., but activists say the relief\u00a0should extend to people with sales convictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n Activists with Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Last Prisoner Project (LPP) and DCMJ\u00a0staged protests outside of the White House on Monday<\/a>\u00a0to call attention to that issue, demanding that Biden release the estimated 2,800 people currently in federal prison for marijuana convictions that aren\u2019t limited to simple possession.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, DOJ and HHS have\u00a0committed to quickly carrying out the separate scheduling review<\/a>\u00a0the president directed, which could result in a recommendation to place cannabis in a lower schedule or remove it altogether, effectively legalizing the plant under federal law.<\/p>\n HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra has said\u00a0officials will \u201cwork as quickly as we can\u201d to complete the analysis<\/a>\u00a0of cannabis scheduling per the president\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n The Department of Justice, for its part, \u201cwill expeditiously administer the President\u2019s proclamation, which pardons individuals who engaged in simple possession of marijuana, restoring political, civil, and other rights to those convicted of that offense,\u201d a department spokesperson said.<\/p>\n Labor Secretary Marty Walsh said that officials will be working diligently to ensure that people who received a pardon for federal marijuana offenses under the presidential proclamation\u00a0are not impeded from future job opportunities<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vice President Kamala Harris said this month that voters should elect lawmakers who support marijuana reform so that Congress can enact a \u201cuniform approach\u201d to the issue\u00a0in light of the president\u2019s cannabis pardons<\/a>.<\/p>\n A series of polls have shown that Americans\u00a0strongly support the president\u2019s pardon action<\/a>, and they also don\u2019t think that marijuana should be federally classified as a Schedule I drug.<\/p>\n Germany\u2019s Government Approves Marijuana Legalization Plan, But Reform Depends On European Union Sign-Off<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post White House Drug Czar Applauds Biden\u2019s \u2018Historic\u2019 Marijuana Actions, Says Youth Cannabis Concerns Shouldn\u2019t \u2018Nullify\u2019 Medical Benefits<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The White House drug czar is touting President Joe Biden\u2019s \u201chistoric\u201d move to issue a mass marijuana pardon and direct an administrative review of the drug\u2019s scheduling status. And he is again highlighting that there are \u201cclearly\u201d medical benefits of cannabis\u2014which he says shouldn\u2019t be ignored because of separate concernsContinue 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\/57713"}],"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=57713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57714,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57713\/revisions\/57714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: White House Drug Czar Applauds Biden\u2019s \u2018Historic\u2019 Marijuana Actions, Says Youth Cannabis Concerns Shouldn\u2019t \u2018Nullify\u2019 Medical Benefits<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"