Dems are asking Biden for last-minute action on marijuana

Democratic lawmakers on Monday urged US President Joe Biden to ensure his administration’s “historic work … to repair the damage of federal marijuana policy” does not end with steps already taken over the past three years, asking the president to “deprioritize”. “Marijuana criminal proceedings before his term ends in January.

Led by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), 14 members of the Democratic Party applauded Biden for issuing a directive earlier this year, prompting health regulators to recommend that marijuana be classified as a Schedule III substance under the Controlled Substances Act. For decades it was classified as a Schedule I drug, considered to have no medical use and a high potential for abuse.

Lawmakers called on the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to “complete that process as soon as possible,” but stressed that doing so “will not end federal criminalization, address its harms, or significantly address the federal policy gap and the state cannabis law. and the use of recreational marijuana—and much state legal medical marijuana—will continue to be a violation of federal law.”

What would help end federal criminalization, the lawmakers said, is “a memorandum that would deprioritize the seizure of marijuana and the prosecution of individuals and businesses for legal state marijuana activity.”

The DEA continues to conduct major raids and seizures of marijuana plants and businesses, the lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.). They pointed to raids conducted this year in New Mexico in which state police destroyed tens of thousands of pounds of “state legal” marijuana plants.

“The Biden administration has an opportunity to further reduce the harms of marijuana criminalization before the end of this administration.”

“We urge you to issue a memorandum reducing the priority of confiscating marijuana and prosecuting individuals and businesses for legal state marijuana activity,” the letter states. “Today, federal sentences for possession of marijuana are rare, with only 13 people convicted of simple possession of marijuana in 2023, compared to more than 2,000 in 2015. Still, the threat of a federal conviction remains.”

A Biden administration memorandum is also supposed to direct federal law enforcement authorities to “deprioritize prosecutions for any future marijuana-related crimes that were the basis for previous federal pardons and prioritize prosecutions for personal cannabis activities and cannabis activities that comply with state or tribal law”. the parliamentarians wrote.

Biden was applauded for granting pardons and commutations for people convicted of marijuana-related crimes, but lawmakers noted that at least 3,000 people remain in federal prisons for such convictions.

“The Biden administration has an opportunity to further reduce the harms of criminalizing marijuana before the end of this administration by issuing a new round of clemency and an updated memorandum on prosecutorial discretion for marijuana-related offenses,” the lawmakers said.

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominations for top government posts indicate potential mixed positions on marijuana policy in the new administration. His attorney general nominee, former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi, opposite an amendment to legalize medical marijuana in the state, and Food and Drug Administration commissioner nominee Marty Makary has appointed marijuana a “gateway drug”.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom Trump nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, has expressed support for the legalization of medicinal marijuana.

Lawmakers on Monday urged Biden not to leave major decisions on cannabis policy up to Trump.

“Marijuana rescheduling and the previous round of pardons must not be the end of this administration’s historic work to use its executive authority to repair the damage of federal marijuana policy,” they wrote. “While we continue to work for legislation to end the federal criminalization of marijuana and regulate it responsibly and fairly, we urge prompt administrative action to address the harms of criminalization, particularly to benefit the communities most affected by the War on Drugs”.

Republished from Common dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).