Posted on 12/22/2023 7:45:14 AM PST by Red Badger
President Joe Biden took major action ahead of the holiday and pardoned all Americans arrested, prosecuted, or convicted on federal charges for marijuana use, following through on his 2020 campaign promise to expunge cannabis use offenses.
Biden signed a proclamation Friday that forgives U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents caught by law enforcement for possessing the drug and charged, going far beyond the sweeping actions he took last year for thousands of people convicted of possession.
The new action includes "additional offenses of simple possession and use of marijuana under federal and D.C. law," the White House said in a statement issued Friday morning.
The Biden administration did not provide an estimate for how many people would be affected, but it noted that those convicted of selling or transporting marijuana were not included in the pardon.
The White House's hope in taking such broad action was to make it easier for people with criminal records to be able to obtain work and housing as a result of clearing their records of the felony offense.
"Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities," Biden said. "Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs."
People convicted of violating state marijuana laws are not eligible for this latest pardon, but Biden urged governors to take similar actions to absolve state charges.
Biden will take additional action Friday and commute the prison sentences of 11 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, including some mandatory life sentences, according to the White House. These commutations are the latest since he took similar action in April.
"Today, President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is using his authority under the Constitution to uphold the values of redemption and rehabilitation by commuting the sentences of 11 fellow Americans who are serving unduly long sentences for non-violent drug offenses," the White House said in its announcement.
The Biden administration moved earlier this year to reclassify marijuana to a lower category on the Drug Enforcement Administration's scale. The Department of Health and Human Services proposed that the DEA move marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a Schedule III drug.
As a Schedule I drug, marijuana is defined as a drug with no medical use and a high potential for abuse or addiction. Schedule II drugs may have some medically acceptable uses but still come with a high risk of abuse or addiction. Schedule III drugs contain smaller amounts of narcotic and non-narcotic drugs.
We always heard that the “war on drugs” wasn’t working. That’s because the azho politicians up in the swamp didn’t want it to work. Keep them high and ignorant and they’ll continue to vote for you no matter how big of a crook they are.
thread winner.
WOW! Bet they aren’t all one joint convictions either. Surelt there are no major traffickers among them. 🚽
He’s just following orders from Obama....
I have drank plenty of that.
This is what a collapsed society looks like. It’s over.
These blanket pardons seem unconstitutional. In effect, this means any law previously passed can be vetoed by the president by simply claiming all who violate the law are pardoned.
In the late ‘60’s when I was in the Navy at Mayport, FL, me and a buddy used to get Mother Goldstein’s Jewish Passover Wine for $2.25 a quart...We’d get sloppy drunk on that stuff...
I always had a bad feeling that when the teens of the 1960s and 1970s came of age they would try to legalize what they wanted in those years. Sex and Drugs! Some companies even began to copyright various names for future product use such as “Acapulco Gold” and other names.
Wonder what today’s teens will try to legalize when they get of age?
BINGO....................
PERFECT
In general, everything should be legalized. If they want to cause damage, let them. But, the other side of that philosophy, arrest for public impairment, driving, homelessness, unemployment and welfare denied, etc. is not in the cards. Best we can do is slap their wrists.
Boones Farm strawberry hill. As a youth in Buffalo, we had a clubhouse in the basement. We used the window to chill it to near freezing so we couldn't taste the stuff.
The only reason alcohol and tobacco aren’t “gateway drugs” is you can buy them legally from a legal dealer. It is the laws criminalizing pot make it a “gateway drug”.
Wine will definitely get you.
It makes sense, Joe’s got the brain of a life-long pot head.
Yea, any alcoholic probably started with Boones Farm.
Both are likely true. That makes neither pot or alcohol addiction any more acceptabie.
“That makes neither pot or alcohol addiction any more acceptabie.”
I agree.
That pardon should be on the condition that they no longer use drugs.
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