Biden’s pardon announcement last Thursday made headlines, but the relief it delivers is narrower than many assume. While the plan opens up better job prospects for the roughly 6,500 people it directly covers, the vast majority of Americans convicted on marijuana charges won’t see any change at all. That gap is exactly why Biden has also called on governors to update their own state laws to extend similar relief.
“Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely due to the possession of marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” Biden said.
Morgan Fox, political director for the nonprofit National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, believes Biden has an understanding of the mass incarceration issues related to cannabis.
Biden’s plan is intended to be a “measure of hope.”
How We Got Here: A Look at Cannabis Convictions
According to a United States Sentencing Commission report from NORML, Since 2012, federal marijuana convictions have decreased by about 85% from over 4,000 arrests in 2021, to about 1,000 in the past year. That being said, federal convictions dwarf state cannabis related arrests.
The FBI counted more than 500,000 marijuana-related offenses in 2019 alone, with the bulk coming from state-level arrests. Federal cannabis convictions accounted for about a third of all federal possession arrests that year, down from roughly half back in 2009.
Over 31 states have decriminalized cannabis, while 19 including Washington D.C. have fully legalized the substance. That being said, the marijuana industry still faces racial disparities as a white dominated business, in which a majority of cannabis convictions are still people of color.
Gallup polling puts public support for legalization at around 70% of Americans overall, with Democrats backing it at 80% while Republicans remain roughly split.
Pushback Against Biden’s Approach
Some states have a complicated system to pardon offenders. In Texas, there are several steps to receive a state pardon. In response to Biden’s plan, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott argued that “the governor of Texas can only pardon individuals who have been through the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles system with a recommendation for pardon.”
Advocates Say the Plan Doesn’t Go Far Enough
Natalie Papillion, director of strategic initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, gives praise to BIden’s plan for focusing on repairing the damages made from the war on drugs instead of exclusively focusing on the legalization of cannabis. Despite the praise, Papillion also states that there is still much work to be done.
“Before we talk about how much money we can really make, services and so forth and so on, we need to talk about how we can unwind the harms of those who have most been impacted, people who have been arrested and put into jail.”
Papillion suggested to the president that all non-violent cannabis offenders should be included in the pardon, and not just simple possessors.
During his campaign, Biden had backed marijuana legalization and decriminalization, going as far as saying all cannabis-related offenses should be expunged.
Many are trying to hold the president to that promise, some of which believe former offenders should be offered even more relief. Maritza Perez, director of the Drug Policy Alliance’s Office of Federal Affairs, suggests the administration should also conduct resentencing, and removal of immigration consequences in addition to the expungement of cannabis convictions.
“It’s a step in the right direction, but definitely does not do enough to really help repair the harms of the drug war,” she said.
Perez anticipates congress to draft several bills to create marijuana reformation once and for all.
Lawmakers have floated several other measures, among them fiscal policies designed to lower the cost for states to expunge cannabis offenses under a proposal called the Harnessing Opportunities by Pursuing Expungement Act, or HOPE.
Further legislation has been drafted such as the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, as well as the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement Act, both of which focus on developing expungement processes while decriminalizing marijuana.
