“As I have often repeated during my election campaign, no one should be in prison for using or possessing marijuana.” Joe Biden announces pardon for all federal offenses involving “mere possession of marijuana.” The US president has asked governors to do the same for state crimes: criminal records for marijuana possession, he stressed, have imposed “unnecessary barriers to job opportunities and education.”
A pardon for all federal convictions related to the mere possession and use of marijuana is a decision that initiates large-scale decriminalization and will impact the lives of thousands of Americans. “It has upset too many lives to send people to prison for crimes that in many states are not even more”, continued the tenant of the White House, “criminal records related to the use of marijuana have imposed obstacles to those looking for a job, a home, the opportunity to study. Blacks and whites use it in the same proportions, but blacks have been disproportionately indicted and arrested ».
Biden also announced that he will call on governors to follow the new line and pardon the indicted for mere possession. The one announced by Biden is the first step towards the complete decriminalization of the possession and consumption of cannabis. Marijuana is federally illegal under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, which recognizes no medical application and punishes its abuse. Meanwhile, thirty-six states have legalized consumption for medical purposes, while nineteen also allow recreational use.
The president also mandated the Minister of Health and Justice to develop a reform of the federal law on soft drugs under which marijuana is considered a ‘Class A’ drug, like heroin and LSD. . A higher category than fentanyl and methamphetamines, the main drugs responsible for the overdose epidemic in the United States.
The drug law reform to decriminalize marijuana was also attempted by Barack Obama in 2013 but Donald Trump’s attorney general in 2018 thwarted all efforts. Biden stressed that all measures against trafficking and selling to minors remain in force.