President Joe Biden on Monday said that marijuana reform is part of his commitment to \u201cequal justice,\u201d arguing that people should be released from prison and have their records cleared for simple possession.<\/p>\n
Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day hosted by the National Action Network\u2019s (NAN), the president said he was keeping his \u201cpromise\u201d by providing relief to those who\u2019ve been criminalized over cannabis.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one\u2014I\u2019ll say it again\u2014no one should be in federal prison for the mere possession of marijuana. No one,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cIn addition to that, they should be released from prison and completely pardoned and their entire record expunged so that if they have to ask, \u2018Have you ever been [convicted], you can honestly say, \u2018No,’\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Biden didn\u2019t go into detail about the mass pardon he issued in October, granting clemency to several thousand people who\u2019ve committed federal marijuana possession offenses. But he\u2019s repeatedly described the action as an example of a campaign promise that he\u2019s fulfilled.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s notable that he also talked about expungement and releasing people who are currently incarcerated over cannabis.<\/p>\n
The pardons that he provided don\u2019t technically expunge those records, as that falls beyond his executive authority\u2014but he\u2019s encouraged governors to follow his lead by granting relief at the state level where their authority may be different and where the bulk of cannabis cases have been prosecuted.<\/p>\n
In terms of releasing currently incarcerated people, that\u2019s something that advocates have strongly pushed for<\/a> given that there are still thousands behind bars over federal cannabis offenses. But Biden has made clear that he\u2019s only willing to extend relief to those with simple possession convictions and not those who\u2019ve sold cannabis, for example.<\/p>\n The U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC) recently released a report that showed record-low federal marijuana prosecutions<\/a> during the last fiscal year and noted that there aren\u2019t any people currently serving time over cannabis possession.<\/p>\n At the MLK Day breakfast, Biden also briefly mentioned his administration\u2019s work to secure the release of WNBA player Brittney Griner<\/a>, a medical marijuana patient who served 10 months in a Russian prison over possession of cannabis vape cartridges before a prisoner swap was negotiated last month.<\/p>\n Rev. Al Sharpton, a criminal justice reform advocate who founded NAN, said<\/a> in a press release ahead of the event that Biden has \u201cshown a relentless commitment to not only upholding but expanding civil rights in the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice said last month that the president\u2019s cannabis clemency and directive for an administrative review into cannabis scheduling have helped address the country\u2019s \u201cfailed approach to marijuana\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and represent key parts of the administration\u2019s \u201cremarkably productive year.\u201d<\/p>\n Rice was also among\u00a0various officials who cheered Oregon\u2019s governor<\/a>\u00a0for providing state-level relief following Biden\u2019s call-to-action.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of 29 congressional lawmakers from both the House and Senate\u00a0sent a letter to the president last month<\/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 last month<\/a>.<\/p>\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, 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\u00a0would \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 that 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> last 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 First Marijuana Bill Of The New Congress Is A GOP-Led Gun Rights Measure<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Biden Touts Fulfilled \u2018Promise\u2019 On Marijuana And Calls For Expungements At MLK Day Event<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden on Monday said that marijuana reform is part of his commitment to \u201cequal justice,\u201d arguing that people should be released from prison and have their records cleared for simple possession. Speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day hosted by the National Action Network\u2019s (NAN), the presidentContinue 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\/60747"}],"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=60747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60748,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60747\/revisions\/60748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Biden Touts Fulfilled \u2018Promise\u2019 On Marijuana And Calls For Expungements At MLK Day Event<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"