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President Joe Biden says his administration is “making sure” people are not incarcerated over marijuana possession, while arguing that prior cannabis convictions should be expunged.
During a speech at the 115th NAACP National Convention on Tuesday, the president briefly touched on his marijuana policy position amid ongoing speculation about his fitness for office and ability to beat former President Donald Trump in the November election.
“By the way, we’re making sure that no one goes to jail for the mere use of possession of marijuana,” Biden said. “Their records should be expunged. It holds them back.”
While the president has issued mass pardons for thousands of people who’ve committed federal cannabis possession offenses, and also directed an administrative review into marijuana that led the Justice Department to formally recommend rescheduling, neither of those actions prevent the continued criminalization of people over marijuana.
Biden made a campaign pledge in 2020 to decriminalize cannabis, but that hasn’t come to fruition in the first three and a half years of his term in office. Also, if the DOJ’s proposal to move marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), that would still not federally legalize it.
In any case, as Biden faces growing pressure to reevaluate whether he is capable of defeating Trump in the upcoming election, with calls from certain Democratic lawmakers to bow out so the party can pursue another potential nominee, his marijuana mention at the NAACP event shows once again that the campaign understands the potential value of promoting cannabis policy reform on the trail.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson, who introduced the president on Tuesday, also recently spoke with Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) at a virtual event where they discussed the governor’s own recent mass marijuana pardon, which also earned praise from the White House.
The president, for his part, also recently touted his administration’s work to address the “failed approach to marijuana” as part of a proclamation marking the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.
The president has also previously promoted his cannabis pardons and scheduling directive in proclamations marking “Second Chance Month.” In 2022, he pointed to the pardons as an example of how his administration is tackling racial justice.
Last month, the White House separately said Biden “commends and welcomes” recent news that Maryland’s governor has issued over 175,000 pardons for marijuana and paraphernalia convictions.
In May, meanwhile, Biden also discussed his mass marijuana pardons at a rally in Philadelphia, where he finally acknowledged that his clemency actions did not expunge records after he had repeatedly suggested they did.
While the president might have adjusted his rhetoric to reflect the realities of the clemency action, he hasn’t indicated that he’s willing to offer relief for offenses beyond simple possession. In fact, he’s specifically said that growing or distributing cannabis is “a different deal.”
The White House drug czar, Rahul Gupta, has also discussed the rescheduling move multiple times over the past month, framing it as a “historic” reform that could open the door to cannabis-based drug development. However, he’s also inflated the impact of a Schedule III reclassification, at one point suggesting it would address racial disparities in marijuana enforcement.
The Biden-Harris campaign has also drawn a contrast between the marijuana policy actions of their administration and that of Trump, pointing out that DOJ under his administration rescinded federal cannabis enforcement guidance that generally laid out a policy of non-interference with legal marijuana states.
Meanwhile, Trump also announced his pick for his vice presidential running mate at the Republican National Committee convention on Monday, naming Sen. JD Vance (R-OH). The senator has backed states’ rights to enact their own cannabis laws, but he’s opposed legalization and voted against a bipartian marijuana banking bill in committee last year.
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