Just saw this news release from the White House and wanted to post it here, quick, during my work break:
A Proclamation on Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of Marijuana
Ack! Break is over. I’ll add more or delete this post later.
Update: Well, I’m finally back (long day, what can I say), and I see that Joan McCarter has a front-page story up on this: Biden pardons all prior federal marijuana possession charges, begins process to decriminalize. I won’t delete this stub of a post because I don’t want to delete the work of the good people who have already left comments here. Instead, I’ll just add my opinion (for what it’s worth!).
1. Biden is following his political instincts and standing at the leading edge of what popular opinion permits. Biden did promise this in his campaign, after all, so why didn’t he move on it earlier? My first thought, to be honest, was that he timed the announcement for the midterms. And I am sure that was part of the calculation. But another factor was probably the Supreme Court abortion decision and the fallout from that.
What does one have to do with the other? Just this: securing abortion rights and decriminalizing marijuana use have been on the progressive to-do list for a long, long time — but until the SCOTUS bombshell this summer, followed by the Kansas election (etc.), it wasn’t clear how much real popular support there was for abortion rights. Well, now we know! And I suspect that this fact has emboldened Biden and his people to push forward on other changes that rate as popular in opinion polls but that have not always proved to be electoral winners. In August we had (a bit of) student debt relief; today, this.
2. This is a good step; this is a BFD; this is also just a first step. This is a great move, but it is also pretty close to the minimum first step that is necessary in the direction that I hope we are now moving: a final end to the disastrous failed 50-year War on Drugs. The ultimate goal should, in my opinion (and note, I speak as someone who neither uses nor likes drugs of any sort) the complete decriminalization of all recreational drugs, subject only to proper safety regulations. I don’t particularly like the idea of freely available opioids, but decriminalizing them (if done right) should, I think, make it possible to take drug distribution out of the hands of criminal cartels and make it possible to regulate their safety.
At the same time, the money and human resources poured into the disaster of the War on Drugs should be redirected towards helping those who need help. Prison isn’t help. (I am sure that others have given much more thought to this than I have and have more intelligent things to say; these are my gut feelings.)
Finally, ending the War on Drugs really should be coupled with a plan to help the countries that have been dragged by the US drug addiction problem into the violence surrounding that war. The problem here is that US politicians (and media) find it too easy to blame our problems on those other countries, never recognizing that we are the ones who brought the violence, criminality, and drug-dealing to them. Countries from Mexico to Peru deserve compensation and economic development, not our imported war. I write all this in the full knowledge that, given our horrid politics, it will never happen.
3. By taking this step now, Biden cements the change. Self-styled conservatives will rage, they’ll scream, they’ll tell the rubes that Armaggedon is at hand and that drugged-out zombies will be out on the street robbing and raping or whatever they thing kids mellowed out on weed do, and of course they’ll take to the airwaves demanding Biden overturn this step towards decriminalization. Sure, that’s what they’ll say. But when they do get back in power — whether it’s in 2024 (nooooo!!!) or later (much, much later, please!!) — they won’t actually do anything about it. Just as they raged about “Obamacare” and pretended to try to pass one “repeal” after another, but ultimately did nothing, and have now apparently forgotten all about it. Why? Because the move will prove too damn popular. Once you give people a right, whether or not they thought they wanted it, it becomes really, really hard to take it away again. Oh, and, even if they do try, and even if somehow they do roll back some of Biden’s changes, they still won’t be able to re-convict the thousands that Biden has freed. A presidential pardon is forever.
Finally, here’s Joe Biden’s twitter video on the announcement:
Here’s a link to the NYT article, which notes that “pardons will also affect people who were convicted under District of Columbia drug laws; officials estimated that number to be in the thousands”:
Biden Pardons Thousands of People Convicted of Simple Marijuana Possession
And here’s the article in the Washington Post, which notes how well decriminalization polls among the general public and says that “The step marks a big move toward decriminalization”:
Biden offers mass pardon for those convicted of marijuana possession