WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he is pardoning those convicted federally of simple possession of marijuana, a historic act movement that could help more than 6,500 people and sends a powerful message about how such actions should be handled.
The vast majority of convictions occur at the state level. The president urges governors to also pardon these offenders.
“Too many lives have been disrupted because of our failed approach to marijuana,” Biden said in a video ad. “It’s time we righted those wrongs.”
Biden is also asking the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to review how marijuana should be enshrined in federal law.
White House officials said the president was making the decision to keep a campaign promise as congressional efforts to address the issue stalled.
“As I’ve said many times during my presidential campaign, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said. “Sending people to jail for marijuana possession has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for behaviors that many states no longer prohibit.”
Biden said the “collateral consequences” of marijuana possession convictions include denial of employment, housing or educational opportunities.
He also said black and brown people have been arrested and convicted at disproportionate rates despite using marijuana at similar rates to whites.
The Department of Justice will issue pardon certificates to those eligible. This process will begin to be implemented “in the coming days,” according to department spokesman Anthony Coley.
The pardons will apply to those convicted under the District of Columbia’s drug laws, which cover “thousands” of additional people, according to the White House.
They do not apply to anyone who, at the time of their offence, was not legally in the country.
The president’s pardon also blocks future federal prosecutions for simple possession.
Marijuana is a Schedule 1 substance of the Controlled Substances Act, the classification intended for the most dangerous substances. The classification is for drugs with no currently accepted medical use and high potential for abuse.
Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin and LSD, while fentanyl and methamphetamine are Schedule 2 substances.
Over the years, Congress has enacted dozens of mandatory minimum sentencing laws for all drug offenses that have resulted in longer incarceration periods. Repeat offenders were subject to mandatory sentencing enhancements such as double sentences, which vary by substance. Some have even been sentenced to mandatory life without parole if convicted of a third serious offence, according to various United States Sentencing Commission reports.
The Department of Justice will work with the Department of Health and Human Services on a “scientific review” of marijuana classification, Coley said. There is no deadline for this exam.
Biden stressed that he does not want to change the rules on trafficking, marketing or selling marijuana to minors.
During the 2020 campaign, Biden promised to “decriminalize cannabis use and automatically erase prior convictions.” He also supported the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes, deferring recreational use to states and rescheduling marijuana as a Schedule II drug.
More than 540,000 people were arrested for marijuana-related offenses in 2019, mostly for state offenses, according to the FBI.
In April, the House voted largely along party lines to decriminalize marijuana federally. The Senate did not consider the bill.
Medical use of cannabis products is permitted in 37 states and the District of Columbia, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. It can be used recreationally in 19 states and the District of Columbia.
Biden’s decision comes weeks before the midterm elections and could help motivate young voters and minorities to go to the polls.
The latest NPR/Marist poll released this month found young and black voters are among the least likely to vote this fall.
But Cristina Tzintzún Ramirez, president of youth advocacy group NextGen America, said Biden had “delivered huge wins for young people in recent months,” pointing to his action on marijuana pardons, loan debt forgiveness student and signing legislation to fight climate change.
“One thing is clear: this is the youth agenda in action,” she said in a statement on Thursday.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson called Biden’s pardons “another important step in addressing systemic racism in the criminal justice system.”
“Vote, vote, vote,” Johnson said in a statement. “We can continue to make a difference.”
