It is not a coincidence that Joe Biden made a major announcement concerning simple possession of marijuana as the 2022 midterm elections are just 32 days away. Biden announced he is pardoning all Americans convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law. He is also directing agencies to review how the government classifies marijuana.
Bold move for an old geezer, you might say. Not really. In fact it is the weakest sop he could have provided to bribe Democrats to get off their couches and go vote in the midterm elections. This is a last-minute move made out of desperation. Biden’s polling numbers are going back down after the smallest of increases during the summer legislative victories by the Democrats in Congress. His job approval rating is hovering around 40% and that ain’t good. Given the shape this country is in right now, thanks to his administration, his approval rating will not help fight off the red wave coming in November.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. Biden already made his big play of student loan forgiveness to bribe Democrats to get to the polls and vote. He isn’t calling for legalization of marijuana on the federal level. He is only pardoning those with federal charges of simple possession. By executive action he will clear thousands of people of their convictions between 1992 and 2021. As he does so, he is encouraging state officials to do the same. The truth is that far more drug possession charges are state charges, not federal charges. It will be up to individual governors to agree to make the same move. Biden’s pardons may affect thousands but if governors did the same, those numbers would grow into the millions.
Biden wants Congress to look at how marijuana is classified as a drug. For years, this has been a problem. Marijuana is classified as a Schedule 1 drug under federal law. That is the same category as LSD and heroin. Crazy enough, it’s a more serious classification than fentanyl or methamphetamine. Biden said, “It makes no sense.” For once, Joe Biden is correct.
I don’t have a problem with what Biden is doing. It’s time for drug laws to get an overhaul to keep up with the times. While a lot of Republican lawmakers do not agree with legalizing the recreational use of marijuana for adults, it is becoming a reality state by state. Americans support recreational and medical use of marijuana.
Not long ago, pot was politically dangerous, which is one reason that Bill Clinton insisted, risibly, that he had tried marijuana but not inhaled. When Clinton was president, only about a quarter of the population supported legalizing marijuana. Times have changed. Different pollsters get slightly different answers depending on how they ask the question: Gallup found 68 percent of Americans favoring legalization in 2021, while Pew Research found that nine in 10 support either recreational or least medical use. Most Americans live in a state with some form of legalization, and nearly half can consume recreational cannabis legally.
When Washington and Colorado approved recreational marijuana in 2012, it was a massive news story. Now, a new state-level liberalization is unlikely to make the national news. Even the dowdy New York Times endorsed legalization nearly a decade ago—something akin to your parents trying to pass you a joint.
Biden points to the fact that people with marijuana convictions can have difficulty in finding employment, housing, and education opportunities. That is true, too. Biden sees his decision to pardon those convicted of simple possession as fulfilling a campaign promise. Here’s the question, though – what took so long? He was more than eager to fulfill campaign promises like trying to destroy the fossil fuel energy industry on Day One and did so with executive orders. Yet, he waited until a month out from the midterm elections to do this. We see you, Joe.
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Biden isn’t a bold politician. He leads from behind. He hasn’t been in the forefront of drug law reforms or federal policy on legalization. He has seen public opinion swing back and forth. He didn’t call for the rescheduling of marijuana during his 2020 presidential race.
Politicians who have been around a long time have also seen the movement hit enough potholes to be hesitant about embracing legalization. As I noted in 2014, there was a moment in the late 1970s when weed laws seemed destined for the ashtray of history. Both the Times and National Review called for decriminalization, and the share of the population supporting legalization was on the rise. But then opinion turned, and support stayed low for decades. As chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Biden had a front-row seat when revelations of past marijuana use torpedoed the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Douglas Ginsburg. Biden also saw the popularity of tough-on-drug laws and helped author some of them.
Biden has remained cautious, and during the 2020 Democratic primary was the only candidate not to favor rescheduling cannabis. But the pro-pot portion of the populace is large enough that opinion now seems unlikely to turn. Even so, the Democratic-led Congress has failed to move forward on rescheduling, which seems to have led Biden to his announcement today. (Whether his call for the attorney general and secretary of Health and Human Services to review marijuana’s status actually ends up in a change remains to be seen.)
If Biden was serious about making reforms at the federal level, he would have Congress involved instead of doing this by executive order. That is why this is just a sop to voters for the elections next month. John Fetterman is certainly pleased with Biden’s actions.
We did it, Joe. https://t.co/c98UTPRihF
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) October 6, 2022
Fetterman is for legalizing drugs “across the board.” He’s been on the record since 2015 in favor of that. Hopefully Fetterman receives a shellacking next month in his race against Mehmet Oz, just as we expect other Democrats to receive.
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