Biden Pardons People Convicted of Marijuana Possession Under Federal Law - The New York Times
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The president urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of possession.
Protesters outside the White House in 2016.Credit...Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
By Michael D. Shear
Oct. 6, 2022Updated 4:00 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Thursday pardoned all people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law and said his administration would review whether marijuana should still be a Schedule 1 drug like heroin and LSD, saying that "makes no sense."
The pardons will clear about 6,500 people who were convicted on federal charges of simple possession of marijuana from 1992 to 2021 and thousands more who were convicted of possession in the District of Columbia, officials said ahead of the president's announcement.
Mr. Biden urged governors to follow his lead for people convicted on state charges of simple possession. The number of convictions under state laws vastly outnumbers those who have been charged with a violation of federal laws, limiting the overall reach of the president's actions on Thursday.
Still, the moves — which come about a month before the midterm elections — represent striking shifts for the federal government on a campaign promise that Mr. Biden made in 2020.
"Sending people to jail for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives — for conduct that is legal in many states," Mr. Biden said on Twitter on Thursday. "That's before you address the clear racial disparities around prosecution and conviction. Today, we begin to right these wrongs."
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Mr. Biden stopped short of calling for the complete decriminalization of marijuana — something that Congress would have to do — and said that the federal government still needs "important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and underage sales of marijuana."
But the president's executive actions move the federal government in the direction of the positions taken by some state governments, which have already reduced or eliminated the criminal punishments for simply possessing marijuana — punishments that for decades have sent people to jail.
Advocacy groups, including those representing minority groups, have been urging Mr. Biden to take action as a way of demonstrating his commitment to reforming the inequities built into the criminal justice system.
They praised the president's announcement, but said the impact on real-life individuals will be limited if the states do not follow suit. And they said it means the federal government will still be pursuing criminal charges involving marijuana trafficking, which are more common.
Only 92 people were sentenced for marijuana possession in the federal system in 2017, out of a total of nearly 20,000 drug convictions, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Udi Ofer, a Princeton University professor and former deputy national political director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said simple possession of marijuana is a crime "almost entirely prosecuted by the states." The federal government tends to more commonly prosecute marijuana trafficking crimes, he said.
"This is an important political statement, it's an important value statement, it's progress but this is a drop in the ocean of injustice," Mr. Ofer said.
Inimai Chettiar, the federal director of the Justice Action Network, called the president's move "a really good step" and said one of the most important parts of Mr. Biden's policy is the directive to review how future marijuana crimes are prosecuted.
"That's trying to change a policy decision that was made that marijuana is as dangerous as these other drugs, which we know is not true," Ms. Chettiar said.
Administration officials said individuals convicted of possession under federal law will be able to apply for a pardon certificate from the Justice Department to use when they are trying to get a job, find housing or apply to college. The federal government will stop charging anyone with simple possession starting on Thursday.
Marijuana is already fully legal in about 20 states, and some other states have relaxed criminal penalties, according to DISA, a large drug-testing company that tracks state laws regarding marijuana. It remains fully illegal in a handful of states.
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Good!
Screw the laws, right? Pandering for votes amongst stoners and deadbeats!
Evidently Joe doesn't know that there are zero federal prisoners for “simple” possession.
How would he know? Do the people who voted for him know?
How about the pot heads? What do they know?
Wait, are you high? It’s not about releasing anyone from prison. Although I’m sure your preferred world would have everyone who has ever caught a marijuana charge be imprisoned for life.
This does nothing about the laws. Only congress can do that.
Almost assuredly pandering to progressives and legal state dispensary businesses/investors.
EDIT: Apparently 55% of Republicans are in favor of legalization and a full 2/3rds of all Americans.
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A pardon is legal.
And anyway, nationwide, about 68% of Americans support the legalization of marijuana . Not legalizing it sort of says, “screw the will of the people.”
I agree. Playing devils advocate.
I think most of the pot heads would be voting for democrats anyway.
Good point. Marijuana is an excellent way to treat the inherent hateful and subhuman mindset of conservatism.
weed, saving republican lives for the last 100 years.
And most of the empty heads will be voting for republicans.
Guess the GOP will just have to rely on the meth vote.
As late as last year Biden was resisting calls to do any work on marijuana, so this is a reversal of his previous stances. We don't need full legalization but for the feds to drop it down the drug schedule would be fantastic.
...fantastic and common sense.
Pot is more dangerous than feyntonl, that is what the US government currently says. That is retarded beyond belief and has been for decades.
I don't have any issue with this action except for one little problem....
If a person was convicted of simple possession which was the charge resulting from a plea deal down from a more serious charge then to deal.
But it's long since time to remove it from the Schedule 1 drug list and let it go. We've lost so much money in the war on drugs with no real win, it's time to give it up.
I’m glad, but once again we see that a president must act because Congress won’t.
This would be a one time pardon. Anything else that Biden does with this can be reversed by the next president. I would rather the president use his bully pulpit to shame congress into action. For too many years we've had presidents who use their bully pulpit to hammer the other political side for political gain, but we've not really had a president use it to hammer congress as an entity and start a grass roots campaign to get something done.
I do not believe there is legal precedent for reversing a pardon, and I expect it would be seen as violating the 5th amendment guarantee of due process.
That's why I said 'anything else'. I know a pardon cannot be reversed. But Biden is looking to do more (such as reviewing the Schedule 1 drug list) and if it's done by the President then it can be undone by the next one.
Can he unilaterally do that without some kind of congressional or judicial approval??
Are you talking about the Drug Scheduling list? The answer to your question would be yes, the President can as the list is managed by the DEA which is part of the DOJ. Here's an interesting read on the Drug Scheduling list and how it's managed.
Thanks for the article. Interesting even though dizzying at the same time LOL. Thanks again
No. Not with criminal pardons.
See 5.1.2 , this was already covered. I know that pardons cannot be reversed, it's everything else that Biden is including in this.
Canada legalized it years ago, so it's about time America learned the lesson that Prohibition taught many decades ago. Of course reviving 19th century attitudes and laws, like Arizona has done, is going backwards instead of forwards.
That doesn’t apply to everything, though. Prohibition is not always a bad idea. Many substances that people take into their bodies are genuinely dangerous, and there is popular support for controlling them or prohibiting them outright. Prohibition failed because alcohol was (and remains) wildly popular. It basically turned a huge portion of the population into law breakers. It’s like outlawing anything that people already do in large numbers. Imagine if we suddenly outlawed cars or air conditioning. It would never work.
Like alcohol, marijuana enjoys substantial popularity (not at the level of booze, of course) and is seen as largely harmless. Historically, the punishments for marijuana possession have generally been felt by the public to far exceed what is deserved.
So in contrast, there isn’t a lot of popular resistance to laws against cocaine, heroine, meth, fentanyl, etc. because people recognize them as dangerous.
Even so, in most state jurisdictions, mere possession of drugs is generally a very minor offense. This is different from federal penalties, which can still be very severe because Congress is so slow to change anything. Most state and local jurisdictions are more interested in treating addicts than in jailing them. Being a drug dealer, though, is more serious. Addicts basically only hurt themselves, while dealers are seen as hurting others.
Well, I agree with you. The lesson came from prohibiting something that the majority of the public wanted. I believe, as I guess you do as well, that alcohol and tobacco are more dangerous than marijuana. Marijuana was the impetus for a great cult horrid movie - Reefer Madness.
Sure. But they have been core components of the majority culture for a long time. Marijuana is a minority cultural tradition. Makes it a lot easier to outlaw.
The Controlled Substance Act was passed under Nixon and pot was put on Schedule I so they could bust leftist anti-war demonstration leaders and blacks. They got to parade them in front of America on the nightly news as dangerous criminals.
Great, hope you are all cool when the next Republican president pardons all the people charged with failure to pay taxes.
the Imperial presidency grows stronger and stronger
The last Republican president pardoned crooks and murderers so this doesn't seem like a big deal.
Did he pardon all murderers?
No, he did not but if you're trying to compare releasing convicted murderers of 14 people and wounding 17 others to pardoning those convicted of MJ possession under federal law you need to recalibrate your moral compass.
You deflected to murderers and trump. Biden unilaterally pardoned a whole class of criminals. I hope you can figure out the difference.
Oh no, he pardoned pot users...
The world is going to end....
I guess if he pardoned his cronies like trump did, you all would have a heart attack.
What if a President pardoned all trolls?
I’m sure not one of those criminals plead a more serious charge down for their testimony.
Biden is dumber than the joetards who still support him.
They would end up here....
What is dumb is feigning outrage about something most people don't have a problem with.
But you be you...
I know, possession of pot is equal to if not worse than murder...Does the law look at it as the same?
Federal Laws and Penalties
Possession
Three of the Blackwater guards were convicted of manslaughter and the fourth of 1st degree.
How in world can you compare manslaughter and murder with a misdemeanor of possession?
We don't need any more leftists on here.
I’ll try and make it really simple for you since you are you just spouting random deflections into the ether.
there is a difference between pardoning every criminal who committed a specific crime and pardoning some people who committed crimes. Can you understand the difference?
You are the one that brought up Republican presidents, Sean. Have you forgotten that already? No deflection when in response to your childish comment.
There certainly is, a whole class of misdemeanor offenders, and murderers, three of which were sentenced to 12 to 15 years and the fourth to life in prison.
I sure do understand it, you seem to be struggling with reality.
So is this a case where he doesn't really believe what he is doing or is it that he feels most military people vote Republican? As Commander in Chief he has the authority to do this but has decided not to include military personnel.