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President Joe Biden has issued a proclamation declaring April \u201cSecond Chance Month\u201d for people who have served time in prison, and in the document he took the opportunity to tout his marijuana pardons and address the collateral consequences of cannabis convictions.<\/p>\n
The proclamation, issued on Friday, isn\u2019t directly focused on marijuana clemency. It\u2019s more broadly meant to raise attention to \u201chelping people forge the new beginnings they have earned and building a safer and more just society.\u201d<\/p>\n
Biden said that his administration has worked to prevent crime and break \u201cthe cycle of recidivism,\u201d and part of that effort involved granting a mass cannabis pardon late last year for people who\u2019ve committed federal marijuana possession offenses.<\/p>\n
He said that the White House has \u201ctaken historic steps to end our Nation\u2019s failed approach to marijuana.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSending people to prison for possession has upended too many lives for conduct that many States no longer prohibit,\u201d the proclamation says. \u201cIt has seen Black and Brown Americans disproportionately arrested, prosecuted, and convicted; and imposed unfair barriers to housing, employment, and education.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLast fall, I announced a full pardon for Federal and D.C. simple possession offenses, while calling on other elected officials to do the same at the State and local levels where most marijuana prosecutions take place,\u201d it says<\/a>.<\/p>\n While presidential pardons do symbolically represent formal forgiveness by the federal government, there\u2019s some debate about the extent to which they actually impact \u201cunfair barriers\u201d to things like housing, as the records aren\u2019t expunged and could still be used against people in certain circumstances, according to congressional researchers.<\/p>\n The White House similarly argued that the pardons could lift social and economic barriers<\/a> as part of a factsheet that was released ahead of the president\u2019s State of the Union address in February.<\/p>\n In February, the president separately signed an executive order on promoting equity within the White House and federal agencies that also mentioned the earlier marijuana pardons<\/a>.<\/p>\n Biden\u2019s related push for state-level relief could deliver more meaningful results for those who\u2019ve been caught up in cannabis criminalization. He\u2019s repeatedly noted his message to governors, but this proclamation\u2019s mention of local clemency is a new detail he\u2019s promoting.<\/p>\n The president has repeatedly talked up his pardon action over recent months, stating that it\u2019s \u201cchanged the lives of thousands of people\u201d<\/a> and emphasizing racial disparities in cannabis enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Justice Department also recently released applications for people who received the pardon<\/a> to get a formal certification showing that they\u2019ve been forgiven.<\/p>\n \u2014 In addition to pardoning several thousand people, Biden additionally directed federal agencies to complete an administrative review into federal marijuana scheduling. Officials have committed to carrying out that review expeditiously, though the exact timing is unclear.<\/p>\n More than a dozen bipartisan congressional lawmakers sent a letter to top Biden administration officials<\/a> last month, demanding transparency in the ongoing marijuana scheduling review.<\/p>\n Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a Senate hearing last month that DOJ is \u201cstill working on a marijuana policy\u201d<\/a>\u00a0while awaiting the results of the scientific review from health agencies.<\/p>\n Bipartisan Congressional Bill Would Force DEA To Let Patients Use Psychedelics And Marijuana<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post New Biden Proclamation Highlights Marijuana Criminalization\u2019s Role In Blocking Employment And Education<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
President Joe Biden has issued a proclamation declaring April \u201cSecond Chance Month\u201d for people who have served time in prison, and in the document he took the opportunity to tout his marijuana pardons and address the collateral consequences of cannabis convictions. The proclamation, issued on Friday, isn\u2019t directly focused onContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":63446,"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\/63445"}],"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=63445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63447,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63445\/revisions\/63447"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nRead More: New Biden Proclamation Highlights Marijuana Criminalization\u2019s Role In Blocking Employment And Education<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"