President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that he is taking dramatic steps to change federal marijuana laws and provide relief to drug war victims—an unexpected development that comes roughly a month before the November election.
The president is initiating an administrative review of federal marijuana scheduling, and he also said that he will be granting mass pardons for federal cannabis possession convictions while calling on governors to do the same for state-level convictions.
First: I’m pardoning all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. There are thousands of people who were previously convicted of simple possession who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result. My pardon will remove this burden.
This is a massive development from the president, who has stayed relatively quiet on cannabis reform since taking office after campaigning on marijuana decriminalization, rescheduling and expungements for low-level cannabis convictions.
“As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” he said in a statement. “Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.”
