Last Thursday, President Biden issued pardons to roughly 6,500 people as part of a broader push to reform how the country handles cannabis convictions. Every person covered by the pardon had been convicted on a federal charge of simple marijuana possession.
“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said as a call out to senior administration official to reconsider marijuana as a schedule I controlled substance.
What does the mass pardon actually cover?
According to data collected by the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 600,000 people have been arrested for cannabis possession across the United States. The majority of those arrests stemmed from state-level cannabis charges rather than federal ones, and Biden’s pardon applies only to people convicted on the federal side.
The 6,500 people pardoned were exclusively charged for federal cannabis possession, nothing else. Which means that the people pardoned are only a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of people arrested for marijuana related offenses.
How does the U.S. compare to cannabis policy elsewhere?
37 states in the U.S. have developed a medical cannabis program, 17 of which have also legalized cannabis to be recreational. The United States is still meetings its critical turning point in federal legalization, but it is not alone in where it stands with cannabis. Every country around the world is in its own spectrum of cannabis legality. Like the U.S., other countries may also have a complicated set of rules and regulations.
Where Recreational Cannabis Is Fully Legal
Some nations run recreational cannabis programs that look a lot like recreational states here at home. Canada, Uruguay, and Malta all have national recreational programs on the books, though each still enforces limits on age, purchase quantity, and how cannabis can be transported — not unlike alcohol or tobacco rules.
Countries Sitting in a Legal Gray Zone
Some countries have cannabis laws that may be reminiscent of states transitioning into recreational marijuana programs. South Africa for instance, has laws that prohibit the sale of cannabis, but has decriminalized private adult use. Thailand has a type of medical cannabis program in which it is illegal to consume cannabis if it is for “nonproductive” use.
Germany is in a similar position as the United States, as its most recent coalition government elected into office has pledged to legalize cannabis and create recreational programs.
Australia’s current cannabis laws are a little nuanced as medical cannabis is legal, and recreational use is only legal in the capital Canberra as well as its surrounding regions.
Netherlands may have the grayest market, in which cannabis is illegal, however, personal use in limited quantities is legal.
Robert Mikos, a professor who specializes in drug law at Vanderbilt University comments on the United States’ cannabis laws relative to the rest of the world. “Certainly, there are other countries that have liberal policies and are more consistent about it. But because we have so many states that have legalized adult recreational or medical use, I would count the U.S. as one of the more progressive countries.”
Is global opinion shifting toward legalization?
Based on these comparisons, Latin America and Africa currently stand out as the regions with the most progressive cannabis laws.
Reuters gave a report about a 2018 Constitutional Court decision in South Africa that decriminalized personal use. President Cyril Ramaphosa had announced with the court decision that his government will be doing their best to build up the country’s domestic cannabis sector.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that about 147 million people worldwide have used cannabis within the past year — roughly 2% of the planet’s population. That volume makes cannabis the most widely used drug on Earth, and usage among people ages 19 to 30 has climbed to record highs, showing no sign of tapering off.
Asia is the one continent that may have the most polarizing cannabis laws. While countries like Thailand may have a slightly more liberal outlook on cannabis, countries like New Zealand and Singapore are more difficult to budge. New Zealand had flatly rejected recreational use, making cannabis only available via prescription. Singapore has zero tolerance on any drug including weed, and does not even have a medical cannabis program.
Could this pardon ripple beyond U.S. borders?
What happens in the U.S. tends to carry weight elsewhere. Since the 1960s, the country has served as something of a global standard-bearer for marijuana prohibition. With roughly half of all U.S. states now regulating some form of recreational or medical cannabis, other nations may increasingly look to that shift as a signal to begin experimenting with their own policies.
