Vice President Kamala Harris will be meeting with cannabis pardon recipients at the White House on Friday to discuss their experiences under the president\u2019s clemency proclamations, and Marijuana Moment has spoken exclusively to one of the invited participants.<\/p>\n
Staff with the VP\u2019s office started reaching out to people who were pardoned under President Joe Biden\u2019s 2022 and 2023 proclamations<\/a> earlier this year, taking meetings as officials worked to better understand how they\u2019ve navigated the process, which has also involved Justice Department issuing certificates for the pardons.<\/p>\n On Friday, Harris is set to meet with three cannabis pardon recipients for a \u201croundtable conversation about marijuana reform\u201d in which she will \u201chighlight various actions that the Biden-Harris Administration has taken to advance long-overdue criminal justice reforms,\u201d a White House official told Marijuana Moment on Wednesday.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Biden and Vice President Harris have consistently delivered on their pledge to advance justice reforms,\u201d they said. \u201cThis includes pardoning tens of thousands of people for federal marijuana possession and commuting unjustly long sentences for nonviolent drug offense.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the individuals who will take part in Friday\u2019s event is a longtime cannabis activist, Chris Goldstein, who recently received a pardon certificate from DOJ after being formally forgiven for a 2014 cannabis possession case during a protest advocating for federal marijuana policy reform.<\/p>\n \u201cThree of us will discuss the real impact of our federal marijuana convictions and then getting our presidential pardons. Thousands of people are still eligible, and this event should help raise awareness for more people to apply,\u201d Goldstein, who serves as a NORML regional organizer in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, told Marijuana Moment.<\/p>\n this Friday = @VP<\/a> is holding a discussion about cannabis clemency and justice at @WhiteHouse<\/a> \u2026 and I’ve been invited to participate #CannabisCommunity<\/a> \u2014 Chris Goldstein (@freedomisgreen) March 13, 2024<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n \u201cWe will help represent tens of millions of Americans who have been arrested for marijuana in nearly a century of prohibition,\u201d he said. \u201cA few grams of cannabis have been the premise of harassment and discrimination for untold millions more of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldstein, who recently received a pardon certificate after being formally forgiven for a 2014 federal possession case<\/a>, said that he met with U.S. Pardon Attorney Elizabeth Oyer over the last month to go over the logistics of the event. Oyer\u2019s office has been overseeing the clemency certification process<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Nixon declared a war on people over the premise of drugs. As a Quaker I\u2019m an optimist about civics and I\u2019ve been working to end federal marijuana prohibition for 25 years,\u201d Goldstein said on Wednesday. \u201cSo it\u2019s an honor to be invited into the White House in 2024 as President Biden and Vice President Harris looks towards the future of cannabis policy.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs an old activist, getting invited to the White House has made me turn from Ron Swanson to Leslie Knope in about a week,\u201d he said. \u201cMy index cards are prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n Also participating in Friday\u2019s event will be Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear (D), who has taken executive action to reform marijuana laws in his state<\/a>. Rapper\u00a0Fat Joe will also be involved in the roundtable, as Reuters first reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n While the purpose of the meeting is focused on the president\u2019s clemency action\u2014which he historically touted in his State of the Union address last week<\/a>\u2014the event seems to be the latest signal that the administration is hoping to appeal to voters ahead of the November election by promoting an issue with bipartisan popularity, especially among critical young voters.<\/p>\n The president\u2019s mention of his marijuana pardons and administrative scheduling review directive<\/a> during last week\u2019s speech before a joint session of Congress was a key acknowledgement to that end. And it was well-received, evidenced in part by the massive social media response it elicited<\/a>.<\/p>\n The popularity of administrative cannabis reform was also underscored in a recent poll that showed how Biden\u2019s marijuana moves stand to benefit him in November. The survey found\u00a0the president\u2019s favorability spiked after people were made aware of the possibility<\/a>\u00a0that cannabis could be rescheduled under the Biden-initiated review.<\/p>\n That said, the president\u00a0did again misstate the scope of his administrative actions on marijuana<\/a>, falsely asserting that he expunged thousands of records when, in fact, a pardon does not clear a person\u2019s record.<\/p>\n Harris, for her part, also faced criticism last month after sharing a video where she claimed the administration had \u201cchanged federal marijuana policy.\u201d<\/a> While Biden has issued thousands of simple possession pardons and directed the ongoing review into federal cannabis scheduling, the law itself has not changed at this point, and campaign pledges to decriminalize marijuana have yet gone unfulfilled.<\/p>\n The vice president\u2019s video also showed a map with incorrect information on which states have legalized cannabis to date.<\/p>\n Following its review, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) advised the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).<\/p>\n While that possibility evidently moves the needle for Biden among the general public, equity-focused advocates have stressed the point that it would not legalize marijuana, nor would it do anything to address the decades of harm under prohibition. It would allow state cannabis to take federal tax deductions that they\u2019re currently barred from under an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) code known as 280E, however.<\/p>\n Whether DEA accepts the HHS recommendation is yet to be seen. And while many expect an announcement will happen before the election, the timeline is uncertain.<\/p>\n Certain DEA officials are reportedly resisting the Biden administration\u2019s rescheduling push<\/a>, disputing the HHS findings on marijuana\u2019s safety profile and medical potential, according to unnamed sources who spoke with The Wall Street Journal.<\/p>\n The Biden administration was recently\u00a0pressed to reschedule marijuana by two coalitions representing military veterans and law enforcement<\/a>\u2014including a group that counts DEA Administrator Anne Milgram among its members.<\/p>\n On the president\u2019s pardon action, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, told Marijuana Moment last month that\u00a0the clemency should be \u201cextended all the way out<\/a>, and any unintended or intended consequences of the war on drugs should be dealt with to repair the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n Former Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-CO), however, told Marijuana Moment that\u00a0he\u2019s been \u201cvery pleased\u201d with Biden\u2019s clemency actions<\/a>, arguing that the president has \u201ctaken some pretty, in my opinion, bold steps.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the U.S. Army recently clarified in a branch-wide notice that marijuana possession violations under the military drug code weren\u2019t eligible under the president\u2019s pardons. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA)\u00a0called it a \u201cmistake\u201d to exclude military from the relief<\/a>.<\/p>\n DEA Officials Reportedly At Odds With Biden Admin Over Marijuana Rescheduling Push<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post VP Harris To Meet With Marijuana Pardon Recipients At White House This Week As Biden Leans Into Issue Ahead Of Election<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Vice President Kamala Harris will be meeting with cannabis pardon recipients at the White House on Friday to discuss their experiences under the president\u2019s clemency proclamations, and Marijuana Moment has spoken exclusively to one of the invited participants. Staff with the VP\u2019s office started reaching out to people who wereContinue 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\/73205"}],"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=73205"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73206,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73205\/revisions\/73206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: VP Harris To Meet With Marijuana Pardon Recipients At White House This Week As Biden Leans Into Issue Ahead Of Election<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"