Progressive lawmakers are calling on President Biden to take additional steps on federal marijuana law before his term comes to an end in January.
In a letter sent to Biden and Vice President Harris, Democratic Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) and Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and Ron Wyden (Ore.) pushed the administration to move marijuana from a Schedule I to Schedule III controlled substance.
The move would classify marijuana as a less severe drug that could offer some medical value.
Though the rescheduling would represent progress, the lawmakers said, “it will not end federal criminalization, resolve its harms, or meaningfully address the gap between federal and state cannabis policy.”
“Possession and use of recreational marijuana — and much state-legal medical marijuana — will continue to be a violation of federal law,” the letter says.
In 2022 and 2023, Biden issued pardons for people convicted under federal law of simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession and use of marijuana.
“Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said after his wave of 2022 pardons.
But, the letter points out, Biden’s pardons saw hardly anyone released from prison because few people were incarcerated in federal facilities for the offenses.
Still, some 3,000 people remain incarcerated in federal prisons for other marijuana-related offenses, the letter says.
“President Biden should issue broader clemency — including another round of pardons and commutations to reduce sentences or end terms of — for individuals convicted of other cannabis-related offenses. Additionally, the President should again urge state governors to expand marijuana clemency and decriminalize low-level marijuana conduct under state law.”
The letter also calls for the Department of Justice to update the Obama-era “Cole Memo” to deprioritize prosecuting individuals for marijuana offenses that have been the subject of federal pardons or that comply with state or Tribal law.
The letter follows President-elect Trump’s recent Cabinet nominations of people who have a less favorable view of cannabis.
Trump has indicated he may be open to cannabis reform: He granted clemency to some and recently wrote on Truth Social that “it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use.” He also said he would “continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws.”
But Marty Makary, Trump’s nominee to lead the Food and Drug Administration, has previously called the substance “a gateway drug.” He has implied marijuana may lead to cognitive decline.
Meanwhile, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi’s record on marijuana is somewhat mixed, though she has voted against cannabis legalization in the Sunshine State. Bondi is Trump’s nominee for U.S. attorney general.
“Rescheduling marijuana and the prior round of pardons must not be the end of this Administration’s historic work to use its executive authority to undo the damage of federal marijuana policy,” the lawmakers wrote on Tuesday.
“As we continue to work toward legislation to end the federal criminalization marijuana and to regulate it responsibly and equitably, we urge prompt administrative action to tackle the harms of criminalization — particularly for the benefit of communities most harmed by the War on Drugs.”
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