Last week President Biden issued a proclamation granting pardons to those imprisoned for marijuana possession under federal law or in D.C. In his statement, President Biden urged the states to follow suit, a unique turn in the nearly 50-year-long American war on drugs. But, despite Biden’s call to action, states will continue to prosecute individuals for simple marijuana possession. In his press announcement, Biden explained how the criminalization of marijuana has negatively impacted Black and brown Americans at a higher rate than white Americans, despite the fact that across races marijuana is used at a similar rate.
Although his “pardon” won’t actually reduce the United States’ startlingly high prison population, and will likely only expunge the records of 6,500 individuals, it still matters. Finally, the federal government is responding to the issue that it created and that has torn communities apart and perpetuated the pipeline to prison. The war on drugs is a piece of the puzzle creating the new Jim Crow, along with disenfranchisement, over-policing, anti-Black bias in the judicial system, redlining and more. This was a purposeful political move. Richard Nixon’s domestic policy advisor shared this fact in an interview in 1994, stating “we knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the [Vietnam] war or blacks, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin and then criminalizing them both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night in the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Although Biden seemingly could do more, it’s important to celebrate the wins where we get them. 19 states have legalized recreational marijuana and 37 states allow medical marijuana use, but despite this, it is likely that over 40,000 people are imprisoned in the U.S. on marijuana charges. Even in states where recreational marijuana is legalized, there are numerous roadblocks in the way of people’s previous marijuana charges being expunged. Individuals have to petition for expungement, which can be legally denied even in the case of marijuana. According to numbers from the Massachusetts Probation Service, in the past year 73% of expungement requests were denied, meaning if someone is able to find the time to request expungement, it isn’t even likely that it will be granted. Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker made it clear that he will not be issuing his own pardons for previous marijuana offenses, explaining that “Massachusetts has passed an expungement law for anybody convicted of simple possession of marijuana back in 2018,” ignoring the fact that the process for expungement is difficult and riddled with bias just like the rest of the justice system. Current gubernatorial candidates Maura Healey and Geoff Diehl are split on the issue, with Healey claiming she would pardon past convictions if elected and Diehl saying he wouldn’t.
With Biden’s pardon also came his stressing the potential reclassification of marijuana which is currently classified as a Schedule I drug which is defined as a substance with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Schedule I drugs include heroin, ecstasy and peyote, and are considered more dangerous and addictive than methamphetamine, oxycodone and fentanyl, which are all Schedule II drugs.
As someone who believes the criminalization of the use of any drug is harmful and unnecessary, Biden’s proclamation gives me a little bit of hope. The war on drugs isn’t over and likely won’t be for a very long time, but there is some work being done to slow its negative effects.
