US President Joe Biden in Washington. Photo: epa / Yuri Gripas / abaca
WASHINGTON: Nobody should go to jail for marijuana possession, Joe Biden said during the campaign. With internal political fronts hardened, he now resorts to a presidential decree.
US President Joe Biden is taking a step towards fulfilling his election promise to decriminalize possession of marijuana in the United States. By presidential decree, Biden instructed the departments of justice and health to look into the classification of cannabis more quickly, the White House announced Thursday (local time). Biden pointed out that marijuana is currently identified with heroin and classified as more dangerous than fentanyl, a synthetic drug. “It doesn’t make sense,” he criticized on Twitter.
The executive order also provides for a pardon for anyone convicted of federal possession of marijuana in the United States. According to authorities, there were about 6,500 people from 1992 to 2021, senior White House officials said. No one is currently being held in federal prisons for this reason. Biden specifically pointed out that black Americans are more likely to be prosecuted for cannabis-related offenses and convictions permanently affect their lives.
At the same time, government officials acknowledged that most convictions for cannabis possession were not at the federal level but under state law. Biden also asks their authorities to grant the pardon. Most of the 50 states in the United States legalize the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, and about 20 have decriminalized it altogether.
Biden said during his 2020 presidential campaign that no one should be sentenced to prison for possession or use of cannabis. According to polls, so are the majority of Americans, and not just among Biden’s Democrats, but many Republicans as well. In the spring, the House of Representatives passed another bill, mostly by Democratic votes, which provides for the decriminalization of marijuana at the federal level. However, with the strong role played by the conservative wing of the Republican Party, there was no decision in the second chamber, the Senate.
Biden’s decree comes about a month before the congressional elections, in which the entire House of Representatives and some senators must vote. A few months ago, according to polls, it appeared that Democrats would lose a narrow majority in the House of Representatives and control of the Senate. In the meantime, they have a better chance of holding the Senate – and some are not ruling out that the House of Representatives may also remain democratic. Losing even one of the houses of Parliament would limit Biden’s assertiveness.
