President Joe Biden said this afternoon that he was pardoning thousands of people convicted on federal marijuana possession charges, wiping their records clean and clearing the way for them to more fully participate in social and economic activities.
The pardons, which Biden noted were motivated in-part by disproportionate enforcement of federal drug laws, will impact thousands of Black people who over the past several decades were arrested and incarcerated on simple possession charges. It also signals that Biden intends to usher in one of the most sweeping changes to federal drug policy in decades, encouraging governors to also pardon people with simple marijuana possession convictions at the state level, and asking the Department of Health and Human Services to officially look at dropping weed from its list of so-called Schedule 1 drugs, where it currently appears alongside heroin, cocaine and meth.
“As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail for just using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in a statement announcing the pardons.
“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 possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities. And while white and Black and Brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”
It’s unclear exactly how many people will receive pardons under Biden’s order. The Justice Department issued a statement saying it would “expeditiously administer the President’s proclamation, which pardons individuals who engaged in simple possession of marijuana, restoring political, civil, and other rights to those convicted of that offense. In coming days, the Office of the Pardon Attorney will begin implementing a process to provide impacted individuals with certificates of pardon.”
Biden’s move today reflects not only a shift in policy, but a shift in social attitudes toward recreational weed use. Currently 19 states have fully legalized marijuana use or possession for either medicinal or recreational purposes, and local prosecutors in some states that haven’t are increasingly choosing to not pursue cases against people caught with weed as a matter of policy. At the same time, weed has stayed on the federal government’s list of the most serious illegal substances, creating conflicts with local, state and federal laws. While legalized weed has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry, many consumers and businesses in states that have decriminalized still have trouble processing transactions because of federal prohibitions on providing financial services for illegal drugs.
It might also reflect a president who is thinking about his own political legacy. As a member of the U.S. Senate, Biden was one of the primary sponsors of the now-infamous Federal Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which provided billions of dollars in federal funding for states to grow the ranks of local police forces and incentivize them to implement a number of tough-on-crime strategies that have since been blamed for mass incarceration.
While research shows that the connection between the ‘94 crime bill and mass incarceration isn’t that clear cut, Biden has since apologized for his role in promoting a law that many believe ushered in a carceral state, and for its detrimental impacts on Black and Hispanic communities.