{"id":59006,"date":"2022-12-06T06:07:45","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T14:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/12\/06\/oregon-governor-says-her-mass-marijuana-pardons-are-truly-an-act-of-mercy\/"},"modified":"2022-12-06T17:45:53","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T01:45:53","slug":"oregon-governor-says-her-mass-marijuana-pardons-are-truly-an-act-of-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/2022\/12\/06\/oregon-governor-says-her-mass-marijuana-pardons-are-truly-an-act-of-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"Oregon Governor Says Her Mass Marijuana Pardons Are \u2018Truly An Act Of Mercy\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) says her recent move to grant marijuana pardons<\/a> is \u201cvery much a racial justice issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

The governor spoke about her mass pardon of more than 45,000 people for state-level cannabis possession offenses at a forum hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs on Thursday.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI absolutely believe that no one, no one deserves to be forever saddled with the impacts of a conviction for simple possession of marijuana when, in Oregon, it is a crime that is no longer on the books,\u201d Brown told the audience, referring to state voters\u2019 approval of a cannabis legalization initiative in 2014. \u201cCertainly we know folks that have faced housing barriers, employment barriers, educational barriers for a conviction of this particular crime, and obviously, at least in my state, it is legal and has been for a number of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we all know the truth, and that is that people of color and our low-income community members have been disproportionately impacted by these crimes,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd so, for me, this is very much a racial justice issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown\u2019s marijuana clemency action\u2014which also involved forgiveness for more than $14 million in fines and fees\u2014came after President Joe Biden (D) called on governors to follow his lead in issuing mass pardons for cannabis possession.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are truly a nation of second chances, and I have to applaud President Biden for taking the courageous leadership that he did to pardon over 6,000 folks,\u201d Brown said. \u201cHe understands, as I think everyone in this room understands, that our criminal justice system is flawed and inequitable, and it\u2019s certainly outdated.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing the broader use of executive clemency power as \u201ctruly an act of mercy,\u201d the governor pointed out that it\u2019s not only useful for correcting injustices but is \u201can underutilized tool to enhance rehabilitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve released a number of folks who are incarcerated for drug offenses who were using, and I released them early so that they could get into treatment, so they could get the medical support and services that they desperately needed and were denied when they were behind bars,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s event<\/a> also featured former marijuana prisoner and clemency advocate Michael Thompson, as well as New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin (D) and Princeton professor and former ACLU Deputy National Political Director Udi Ofer.<\/p>\n

Thompson had his decades-long cannabis sentence commuted<\/a> in 2020 by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) and was released from prison. He faced a 42-to-60-year sentence for selling three pounds of marijuana to an undercover police officer and for firearms charges in a case roundly criticized by advocates and the state\u2019s attorney general.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to get others free like I got free,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cWhen I heard I was going to get released, I didn\u2019t believe it because they were playing so many politics. One minute they\u2019re going to do something, next minute they didn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Feeling so grateful for getting to meet @MTClemency<\/a> last week at our panel, after reading about him for so long. No one should have to endure what he had to, serving 25 years in prison for marijuana. But he never gave up, and today he is fighting to help people across the nation https:\/\/t.co\/8bz6oNMStj<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Udi Ofer (@udiofer_) December 5, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cYou can\u2019t just keep throwing away human beings. You got them underneath these trap sentences like you had me,\u201d he said. \u201cI wasn\u2019t supposed to get out of prison until 2038. But because people, they showed humanity and had hearts and conscience. Some people don\u2019t have no conscience, they\u2019re just strictly political. They only think about their careers. But what about a human life? What about their families?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want you to know the pain that our families go through. Because I lost my family,\u201d Thompson said. \u201cEverybody don\u2019t have to lose theirs. I don\u2019t know my family anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The forum was part of the ACLU\u2019s national Redemption Campaign<\/a> focused on liberating 50,000 people from federal and state prisons via the use of existing clemency powers. According to their website, the campaign is pursuing clemency for people who would face shorter sentences if convicted now under recent reforms, people incarcerated for distribution and possession charges regardless of the substance, those incarcerated for technical probation or parole violations and older incarcerated people.<\/p>\n

Biden cheered Brown\u2019s mass cannabis pardon<\/a> in November, tweeting that it\u2019s \u201ctime to right our failed approach to marijuana,\u201d while urging other states to follow suit.<\/p>\n

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Oregon is the latest state to pardon all prior offenses of simple marijuana possession, following my pardon of federal offenses and call to Governors to do the same in their states.<\/p>\n

It’s time to right our failed approach to marijuana. I urge states to follow Oregon’s example. https:\/\/t.co\/5m5aeaDStO<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 President Biden (@POTUS) November 22, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Other governors have also heeded Biden\u2019s call for state-level cannabis clemency<\/a>.<\/p>\n

North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) declared his support of marijuana decriminalization in October, saying it\u2019s time to \u201cend the stigma\u201d and announcing steps he\u2019s taken to explore his options for independently granting relief to people with existing convictions.<\/p>\n

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), meanwhile, signed two marijuana-related executive orders last month: one to protect patients who meet certain criteria and possess medical cannabis legally obtained from dispensaries in other states, and another to regulate the sale of delta-8 THC products. The medical cannabis move is based on the governor\u2019s clemency powers.<\/p>\n

But other governors, such as Florida\u2019s Ron Desantis (R), have so far declined to act and are facing pressure from others in state government. Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried (D) wrote to Desantis last week to express her frustration<\/a> over what she described as a \u201cdereliction of duty\u201d after the final Clemency Board meeting of the year was canceled.<\/p>\n

In October, Fried had requested Desantis place cannabis clemency on the board\u2019s agenda for its December meeting. She had hoped the meeting would be used to facilitate pardons for people with marijuana convictions on their records.<\/p>\n

Florida Sen. Shevrin Jones (D) separately urged Desantis to take steps to grant clemency to Floridians who\u2019ve been criminalized over marijuana.<\/p>\n

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Biden Signs Marijuana Research Bill, A Historic First For Federal Cannabis Reform<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Photo courtesy of <\/span><\/i>Governor Kate Brown<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The post Oregon Governor Says Her Mass Marijuana Pardons Are \u2018Truly An Act Of Mercy\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n


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Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) says her recent move to grant marijuana pardons is \u201cvery much a racial justice issue.\u201d The governor spoke about her mass pardon of more than 45,000 people for state-level cannabis possession offenses at a forum hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":540,"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\/59006"}],"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\/540"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59007,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59006\/revisions\/59007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}