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THE POT PLOT THICKENS
Marijuana advocates last week argued that President Biden is missing an opportunity to sway young voters with his reluctance to take bigger steps to legalize marijuana at the federal level.
The Biden administration has pardoned people convicted of federal simple possession and started a process that may lead to rescheduling marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act. Biden has promised to deliver the rescheduling decision by the end of the year.
However, Biden’s efforts so far have left advocates unimpressed, The Hill reported last week, with the buzz being that he is “falling short of his 2020 campaign promises and failing to address the disparate overcriminalization of the drug that has unduly impacted minority communities.”
Progressives in the Senate are urging Biden to completely deschedule pot, which would effectively decriminalize it federally. “Marijuana’s placement in the [CSA] has had a devastating impact on our communities and is increasingly out of step with state law and public opinion,” twelve Democratic lawmakers wrote to the DEA last month.
And they’re not the only ones. Last week, former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson, now a marijuana advocate and entrepreneur, sent Biden a letter calling on the Administration to reconcile with communities, including the poor and minorities, who have paid the heavy cost of the War on Drugs.
“I write in support of granting clemency to marijuana offenders still incarcerated in federal prison and restoring civil rights to those haunted by a federal marijuana conviction,” the Tyson letter began. “Through a categorical clemency grant you can declare an end to federal warfare on our own people and mark a new era based on peace and prosperity.”
Public opinion is strongly in favor of marijuana legalization. A Gallup poll from November found a record 70 percent of Americans believed marijuana should be legal.
Presidential candidate Trump’s exact stance on pot seems to flip-flop and remain ambiguous. He appointed marijuana-hating Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III as his first Attorney General, but then signed the First Step Act (which he now loves or hates on alternate days).
Biden has not pivoted as dramatically as he claims to have done on marijuana reform. One commentator says, “The people who argue that Biden is “responsible for the most significant marijuana reform in American history”… are right. The people who argue that Biden hasn’t done nearly enough on marijuana reform are also right.”
The Hill, Biden missing opportunity on legalizing marijuana, advocates warn (February 23, 2024)
The Guardian, Mike Tyson urges Biden to free thousands locked up over cannabis: ‘Right these wrongs’ (February 19, 2024)
Harris Sliwoski, Grading the Presidential Candidates on Cannabis (February 20, 2024)
– Thomas L. Root