A top White House official is touting President Joe Biden\u2019s marijuana pardons and scheduling directive among the administration\u2019s top accomplishments in 2022 as the year comes to an end.<\/p>\n
Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice said on Thursday that the president\u2019s cannabis clemency and review moves have helped address the country\u2019s \u201cfailed approach to marijuana\u201d and represent key parts of the administration\u2019s \u201cremarkably productive year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rice has repeatedly highlighted Biden\u2019s pardons, which affect Americans who\u2019ve committed federal marijuana possession offenses, as well as those who violated the law in Washington, D.C. She was among various officials who cheered Oregon\u2019s governor<\/a> for providing state-level relief following Biden\u2019s call-to-action, for example.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Rice, who previously served as national security advisor under the Obama administration, listed<\/a> the marijuana pardons and administrative scheduling review as one of 12 major accomplishments in 2022.<\/p>\n 8. Addressed our failed approach to marijuana by pardoning all federal and D.C. simple marijuana possession offenses, urging governors to pardon offenses, and starting the process of @TheJusticeDept<\/a> and @HHSGov<\/a> reviewing how marijuana is scheduled.<\/p>\n \u2014 Susan Rice (@AmbRice46) December 29, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The administration \u201caddressed our failed approach to marijuana by pardoning all federal and D.C. simple marijuana possession offenses, urging governors to pardon state and local offenses, and starting the administrative process of the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services reviewing how marijuana is scheduled,\u201d the blurb says.<\/p>\n The White House similarly held up Biden\u2019s cannabis moves as \u201ctop accomplishments\u201d for the administration<\/a> in a separate post last month.<\/p>\n Our Administration’s historic accomplishments in 2022 proved that there’s not a single thing America cannot do when we do it together.<\/p>\n Let’s keep it going.<\/p>\n \u2014 President Biden (@POTUS) December 30, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 29 congressional lawmakers from both the House and Senate sent a letter to the president last week<\/a>, asking that he formally back federal marijuana legalization as the administration carries out the cannabis scheduling review.<\/p>\n The letter was sent to the president and the key cabinet officials following a pair of major setbacks for advocates, with lawmakers failing to attach marijuana banking and other reforms to either the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) or\u00a0omnibus appropriations legislation this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n President Biden took an overdue step this year to end the federal government’s failed prohibition of cannabis. But we’ve got work to do. @RepBlumenauer<\/a> & I led a bipartisan group of lawmakers urging @POTUS<\/a> to support efforts to federally legalize marijuana.https:\/\/t.co\/YqqZrBW9NF<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) December 29, 2022<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n While the lawmakers didn\u2019t request that Biden take administrative action to unilaterally facilitate legalization, it does underscore an eagerness among supporters for the White House to play a more proactive role in advancing reform.<\/p>\n U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra, who was CCed on the letter, recently tweeted a link to a Marijuana Moment article<\/a>\u00a0that discusses the president\u2019s administrative cannabis scheduling directive.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to take a look at what science tells us and what the evidence tells us,\u201d Becerra, who has a\u00a0considerable record supporting cannabis reform<\/a>\u00a0as a congressman and as California\u2019s attorney general, said at the recent overdose prevention event. \u201cThat will guide what we do\u2014and we hope that will guide what the federal government does.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the president\u2019s October announcement, the secretary said that the department would \u201cwork as quickly as we can\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to carry out the scientific review. And\u00a0he\u2019s already discussed the issue<\/a>\u00a0with the head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to that end.<\/p>\n Separately, the White House drug czar said recently\u00a0that that the president\u2019s action was \u201chistoric,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0adding that there are \u201cclearly\u201d medical benefits of cannabis.<\/p>\n Like HHS, DOJ has similarly\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 The president also officially\u00a0signed a marijuana research bill into law<\/a>\u00a0this month, making history by enacting the first piece of standalone federal cannabis reform legislation in U.S. history.<\/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 Kentucky Governor Educates Police About Medical Marijuana Executive Order As Activists Press Lawmakers To Pass A Comprehensive Bill<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Photo courtesy of Flickr\/Marc Nozell<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n The post Top White House Official Lists Biden\u2019s Marijuana Pardons And Scheduling Review Among Top 2022 Administration Achievements<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A top White House official is touting President Joe Biden\u2019s marijuana pardons and scheduling directive among the administration\u2019s top accomplishments in 2022 as the year comes to an end. Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice said on Thursday that the president\u2019s cannabis clemency and review moves have helped address theContinue 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],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60088"}],"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=60088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60089,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60088\/revisions\/60089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Top White House Official Lists Biden\u2019s Marijuana Pardons And Scheduling Review Among Top 2022 Administration Achievements<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"