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The president\u2019s mass marijuana pardons and scheduling review directive are again being touted by the White House as \u201ctop accomplishments\u201d for the Biden-Harris administration.<\/p>\n
As the end of President Joe Biden\u2019s second year in office approaches, the White House launched a webpage looking at \u201cThe Biden-Harris Record\u201d that lists 17 major administration achievements, which includes \u201cending our failed approach to marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo help remedy our country\u2019s failed approach to marijuana, including racial disparities, the President pardoned all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession and urged governors to do the same,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\nVia White House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cThe Administration is also initiating the process to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Marijuana is currently a Schedule I drug, the same classification as for heroin and LSD and even higher than for fentanyl and methamphetamine,\u201d it continues<\/a>.<\/p>\n During the early part of the administration, the president and vice president were largely silent on cannabis policy issues after taking office, despite campaigning on a series of modest marijuana reforms like decriminalization and rescheduling. But since Biden granted the pardons last month<\/a>, the administration has seized the popularity of the action, especially in the lead-up to the midterm elections last week.<\/p>\n Its inclusion on the list of \u201ctop accomplishments\u201d is notable in the context of the other 16 achievements. For example, the marijuana relief is listed just after accomplishments on issues like student debt relief and reproductive and right before the administration\u2019s efforts to provide support for Ukraine amid Russian military aggression.<\/p>\n \u2013 Signed the most significant expansion of benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans in more than 30 years \u2014 The White House (@WhiteHouse) November 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n It\u2019s also worth noting that the cannabis action was given its own separate category and not lumped in with another top accomplishment: \u201cAdvancing equity and racial justice, including historic criminal justice reform.\u201d<\/p>\n While the issues are related\u2014and the White House did recently link them in a statement<\/a> about steps that have been taken to uplift Black Americans\u2014the administration evidently wanted to put a particularly bright spotlight on the cannabis achievement in the new list, as well as in related posts on Twitter.<\/p>\n Multiple polls have shown that Biden\u2019s marijuana clemency is widely supported<\/a> by the public, but advocates and some lawmakers have made clear that they want to see the administration go further.<\/p>\n We\u2019re delivering historic results for the American people. pic.twitter.com\/ApffxTd1Nj<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 President Biden (@POTUS) November 16, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n For example, nine congressional lawmakers sent a letter to Biden on Monday, imploring him to extend his pardons include immigrants<\/a> who have citizenship status issues. They are also urged him to \u201cprioritize\u201d decriminalization or descheduling.<\/p>\n Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) previously called for an expansion of the president\u2019s pardons<\/a>, stressing the importance of having a Democratic Party that proactively stands up for Latino communities, including the immigrant population. Part of that means enacting inclusive policies, she said, which was a missing element of the president\u2019s mass cannabis pardon.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, more than 130 immigrations and civil rights organizations sent a letter to Biden, similarly imploring him to extend his marijuana possession pardon proclamation\u00a0to anyone regardless of immigration status<\/a>.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s mass pardon impacted\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 have argued that the relief\u00a0should also extend to people like immigrants and those 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 last month<\/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 While Biden has\u00a0repeatedly touted his cannabis clemency action<\/a>, saying at one point that he\u2019s \u201cchanged the lives of thousands of people,\u201d he\u2019s strongly indicated\u00a0that he\u2019s unwilling to provide further relief<\/a>\u00a0for those with sales convictions.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the White House drug czar\u00a0recently cheered Biden\u2019s \u201chistoric\u201d move<\/a>\u00a0to 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 The Justice Department and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (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 last 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 Congressional Lawmakers Seek Federal Banking Data On Marijuana Business Ownership To Promote Industry Equity<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post White House Touts Biden\u2019s Marijuana Pardons Among \u2018Top Accomplishments\u2019 For Administration<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
The president\u2019s mass marijuana pardons and scheduling review directive are again being touted by the White House as \u201ctop accomplishments\u201d for the Biden-Harris administration. As the end of President Joe Biden\u2019s second year in office approaches, the White House launched a webpage looking at \u201cThe Biden-Harris Record\u201d that lists 17Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":58113,"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\/58112"}],"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=58112"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58112\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58114,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58112\/revisions\/58114"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n\u2013 Nominated Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court
\n\u2013 Pardoned all prior federal and D.C. offenses of simple marijuana possession<\/p>\n\n
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\nRead More: White House Touts Biden\u2019s Marijuana Pardons Among \u2018Top Accomplishments\u2019 For Administration<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"