President Biden announced Friday that he would issue pardons to people convicted of marijuana possession and grant clemency to more than a dozen people sentenced for nonviolent drug offenses.
The signed proclamation will cover those who were charged or convicted of “simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana or use of marijuana” under both federal and Washington, D.C., law. The measure does not pertain to noncitizens.
“Criminal records for marijuana use and possession have imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs,” Biden said in a statement.
The president is also commuting the “disproportionately long” sentences of 11 people currently serving time for nonviolent drug offenses. Many of the charges in question concern the distribution of various drugs such as methamphetamine or crack cocaine, acts that Biden says carry much different punishments now than they did in the past. The people affected by Biden’s actions today were carrying sentences ranging from a little over 15 years to life imprisonment.
“All of them would have been eligible to receive significantly lower sentences if they were charged with the same offense today,” Biden said.
This is not the first time Biden has wielded his pardon power in this way. In 2022, the president pardoned thousands of people convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law and urged the attorney general and the health and human services secretary to review the federal government’s classification of marijuana. But while Biden has expressed an openness to addressing drug laws that many see as draconian, he has yet to call for the full, federal legalization of marijuana, even though 24 states and D.C. have legalized recreational use of cannabis, per the Washington Post. Legalization is also overwhelmingly popular across the country. A November Gallup poll found that 70 percent of Americans think that marijuana should be legal.
