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.
Prohibition gave us the Kennedy Klan.
My brother who died of a heroin overdose would tell you, if he could, that alcohol was his gateway drug.
The DEA and Schedule II gave us Cartels............
ten four
Since I retired I have still never seen such a prosecution.
If an agent were to present such a case to a federal prosecutor they would laugh you out of their office.
I suspect that these cases arise from plea deals. someone gets cough with 100 pounds of pot and the AUSA lets them plead down to simple possession. That happens all the time.
These people are traffickers and dealers.
I absolutely agree...hugely wrong. Of course, Joetato may be going for the Guinness World Record on how many people a particular US President has ever pardoned.
30 years ago yes, today there are plenty of druggies who were smoking pot years before they ever touched alcohol. The 21 year old drinking age along with endless public service announcements about how if you were 20 years old you'd die a horrible death if you drank a beer has created a generation who are convinced pot is safe, these morph into meth/fentanyl addicts.
One young woman I know was active in her school's MADD chapter when she was 16-17, walking around in white face paint (some kind of death mask) depicting people killed by drunk drivers and handing out pamphlets. She was a heavy pot user by that time though and reeked of the stuff, she'd never touched alcohol at that time so she was pure in her book. Today she's 28 and just had her first kid, she's about 300 lbs, tattooed everywhere, and couldn't wait to birth the kid so she could go back to her 18 hr a day pot habit. She's thrown in alcohol into the mix now along with God knows what else, I don't ask. The baby is less than six months old and she & her boyfriend sit around high/stoned most of the day. Great environment this child was born into. Pot's OK though, just ask her.
There are many,many people who’ve used alcohol legally who haven’t gone on to *any* illegal drug. But knowing that you’ve broken the law by possessing grass you’re less likely to be adverse to doing something a little more illegal.’
Knowing you’ve broken the law...e.g., driving while intoxicated.
When you can’t buy Delta 6 and Delta 9 legally via mail order maybe I’ll start thinking there should be laws against marijuana.
ANY persons I might be hiring MUST be clean.
I Do NOT care who Biden thinks he is giving a “Pass” to.
I still can refuse to employ such persons.
GO BACK FURTHER___TO BOOTLEG BOOZE,
-PJ
I was gonna say something to the effect as well. I have no idea about the amount of paperwork a regular, pardon, normally requires, however, I think reality is setting in that his poll numbers are getting worse and worse, and they need something as a distraction, and hopefully prop them up for a short term solution.
I wonder what the effect is going to be on the ability of people who habitually use marijuana in the context of being able to legally purchase a firearm through a dealer. There is a question on the form 4473 dealing with that issue, but in view of this, Now it raises a question as to whether that item on the 4473 is even valid law anymore.
Overall, though I do not use MJ or recommend that anyone use it except for medical purposes, I do not view it as being much different in its effects than alcohol. Since buying, owning and using alcohol is legal for adults, I don’t see any moral problem with having MJ also be legal. Anyway, if I can walk to the corner smoke shop and buy gummies or brownies containing D8, and get just as high with them as by smoking or eating actual marijuana or marijuana oil, then why is marijuana illegal?
Also, I do have a problem with a president completely overwriting law that is still on the books with a stroke of his pen. I know, and respect, that individual people who have committed a crime can be pardoned, but to pardon an entire class of people like this, without congressional authorization is constitutionally troubling to me. I agree with the end result, but the means don’t always justify the ends.
No sigh of relief here, how many cars coming my way on the highway are high on pot?
This is a priority for this putz? How ironic being that back in 1996 he sent these same people up the river with his bill
The drug cartels are bribing and black mailing them. The banks love it!
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