Biden announces mass pardon for low-level marijuana convictions, slamming ‘failed approach’ to drug war

[Zeedox]

Biden announces mass pardon for low-level marijuana convictions

Move marks boldest federal step towards decriminalisation

www.independent.co.uk

Statement from President Biden on Marijuana Reform - The White House

As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana...

www.whitehouse.gov

Biden to pardon thousands convicted of marijuana possession

He said he would also ask his administration to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.

www.nbcnews.com

Dark Brandon unleashes uppercut.

 

[Gomez Adams]

It's a bullshit move.

There is no federal charge of simple possession. It literally doesn't exist as a charge. On a few occasions, the Feds have allowed someone to plead down to that in exchange for their cooperation, but the feds do not and point of fact CAN NOT charge for simple possession.

He literally pardoned a crime that does not exist.

He did it because he knew the fanboys and fangirls would jump on the bandwagon thinking he had finally done something.

He hasn't. At all.

No state is going to be moved one single inch because they know as well as I do that Biden pardoned a crime the feds don't even charge. They're actually laughing at him over it, and rightly so.

It's not going to change a damn thing.

Edit to add: Simple possession was done away with in Atlanta, Fulton County (where Atlanta is), Gwinnett County and some other parts of Georgia a few years ago. Anything under an ounce is a simple citation and nothing more and we're one of the strictest states in the nation on marijuana. That should tell you how lame the move Biden just made really is.

 

[Zeedox]

It’s unclear when the pardons would take effect, and the majority of the marijuana prisoners in the US are incarcerated at the state level, not federal prisons.
In his proposal accompanying the pardon announcement, Mr Biden also called on state governors to adopt similar steps.
Activists and liberal politicians celebrated Mr Biden’s decision as an important step towards racial justice and reducing mass incarceration.

A White House official told CNBC that the new policy would affect at least 6,500 people, as well as thousands more charged with posession under Washington, DC, law, which is also covered under the Biden plan.

The White House also told The Hill that there’s no one currently in federal prison solely for the charges described in the president’s plan.

The pardon scheme also would not make a major dent in the larger dynamics of the Drug War. Poor people of colour have been disproportionately incarcerated for marijuana offences, resulting not only in prison sentences but often life-long limits on access to employment and government services, while wealthy white people have disproportionately been able to enter the lucrative marijuana trade in states where it’s legal.

Many activists and legislators argue a package including full legalisation at the federal level, incentives for justice-impacted people to enter the marijuana industry, and large-scale pardons are necessary to fully remedy the inequalities of the War on Drugs.

 

[Gomez Adams]

It's still a cheap, worthless, bullshit move. He's doing everything he can without doing anything to pump up voters for the election.

He could, and I'm just spit-balling here, but he could just go ahead and decriminalize marijuana and be done with it.

But of course he's not going to do that. That would actually make a difference. This move will not. At all.