A new notice this week from the U.S. Army reminds military members that President Joe Biden\u2019s (D) recent pardons for federal marijuana possession offenses don\u2019t apply to violations of military drug policies.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe proclamation does not cover military drug offenses under 10 U.S.C 112a,\u201d says a blog post that the Army\u2019s directorate of prevention, resilience and readiness published on Monday. \u201cand therefore does not result in a pardon for military personnel, nor does it apply to the civilian drug-testing program.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post is referring to an pardon proclamation issued by the president in December<\/a> that expanded a previous round of pardons for people with federal convictions<\/a> for simple marijuana possession, attempted possession or use. The expansion for the first time applied to people who committed cannabis possession offenses on federal properties, though it still excludes large groups of people, such as those who violated military drug policies and many non-U.S. citizens<\/a>.<\/p>\n As the Army\u2019s recent post notes, as part of Biden\u2019s initial 2022 announcement, the president also urged governors to issue marijuana pardons at the state level<\/a>\u2014which drew mixed reactions from gubernatorial offices across the country. Some officials replied they would take formal steps to review the president\u2019s request, others touted actions already undertaken and yet others signaled they would not be following suit.<\/p>\n The president also called on federal health officials to begin reviewing the federal scheduling status of marijuana, which led a Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recommendation last year to move the substance to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act, alongside drugs like ketamine, anabolic steroids and Tylenol with codeine.<\/p>\n Despite pardon eligibility not extending to the military, the U.S. Army post<\/a> says the administration\u2019s actions were part of an effort to minimize the harm caused by cannabis prohibition<\/p>\n \u201cBiden\u2019s goal with this pardon and further evaluation of current marijuana regulations is to help those who may be denied employment, housing or educational opportunities,\u201d it says, \u201cand suffer other collateral consequences that arise from these convictions.\u201d<\/p>\n A presidential pardon represents formal forgiveness for the violation, but it does not constitute an expungement, which typically involves sealing records.<\/p>\n In the year since the president first pardoned several thousands of people who\u2019ve committed federal cannabis possession offenses, Biden has\u00a0repeatedly pointed to the action as an example of how he\u2019s fulfilling campaign promises<\/a>\u2014though he\u2019s frequently misstated the scope of the clemency by suggesting people were released from prison and had their criminal records fully expunged.<\/p>\n While the action symbolically recognizes the country\u2019s \u201cfailed approach\u201d to marijuana policy, it also falls short of the president\u2019s pledges to more holistically enact reform by federally legalizing medical cannabis and decriminalizing the plant.<\/p>\n If Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) ultimately accepts the HHS recommendation to reschedule marijuana, that would not legalize programs already operating in most states. However, it would have a meaningful impact in other ways, for example by removing at least some barriers to research and allowing state-licensed cannabis businesses to take federal tax deductions extended to other legal businesses, as well as opening the doors to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of prescription cannabis products.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that public support for legalization has reached record highs, especially among the Democratic base, the president has declined to embrace the broader reform. After Ohio became the 24th state to enact legalization in November, for example, the White House affirmed that \u201cnothing has changed\u201d with Biden\u2019s position on the issue.<\/a><\/p>\n While much of the legal cannabis industry has welcomed the Schedule III recommendation, both prohibitionists and some reform advocates have warned against the change, albeit for different reasons.<\/p>\n Last week U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) told Marijuana Moment that she\u2019s \u201copposed\u201d to the change, saying it could set the country back \u201canother 50 years\u201d on the path to federal legalization<\/a>.<\/p>\n Many of the congresswoman\u2019s colleagues, including fellow Cannabis Caucus co-chair Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), have insisted that DEA should fully remove marijuana from the CSA rather than simply reschedule it. But Lee took that criticism a step further by explicitly opposing incremental rescheduling.<\/p>\n On the other side of the issue, a Republican congressman who has long opposed marijuana reform claimed in a letter to DEA that\u00a0FDA came to a \u201cmisguided conclusion\u201d to recommend rescheduling cannabis<\/a>, challenging the health agency\u2019s scientific standards and imploring DEA to dismiss them as it prepares to make a final determination.<\/p>\n Two coalitions representing veterans and law enforcement, meanwhile\u2014including a group that counts DEA Administrator Anne Milgram among its members\u2014came out in support of the change, pressing the Biden administration to go through with the Schedule III move<\/a>.<\/p>\n Vice President Kamala Harris\u2019s office has been\u00a0reaching out to people who\u2019ve received a cannabis pardon<\/a>\u2014seeking assurance that the Justice Department certification process is going smoothly and engaging in broader discussions about cannabis policy reform, according to a pardon recipient who was contacted.<\/p>\n The Justice Department has\u00a0already begun issuing pardon certificates for people who applied<\/a> under the president\u2019s second expanded proclamation.<\/p>\n Separately, FDA recently highlighted its scientific review into marijuana that led the agency to recommend rescheduling<\/a>\u2014a process that involved a comprehensive analysis of research, as well looking at hundreds of posts on social media platforms to see how consumers described cannabis\u2019s therapeutic impact.<\/p>\n Congresswoman Tells DEA To \u2018Reject Any Argument\u2019 That Marijuana Rescheduling Would Violate International Treaties<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post U.S. Army Clarifies That Biden\u2019s Marijuana Pardons Don\u2019t Apply To Military Personnel<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
A new notice this week from the U.S. Army reminds military members that President Joe Biden\u2019s (D) recent pardons for federal marijuana possession offenses don\u2019t apply to violations of military drug policies. \u201cThe proclamation does not cover military drug offenses under 10 U.S.C 112a,\u201d says a blog post that theContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"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\/72838"}],"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\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72839,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72838\/revisions\/72839"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: U.S. Army Clarifies That Biden\u2019s Marijuana Pardons Don\u2019t Apply To Military Personnel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"