Biden says he’s working on legislation to free cannabis inmates

President Joe Biden reiterated his belief that no one should be behind bars for cannabis use and said Sunday he is working on legislation to fulfill that campaign promise.

Biden, who was returning to Washington DC after a four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, made the comments before a crowd of reporters gathered on the White House lawn.

A reporter asked the President if he intends to fulfill his “campaign promise to release all marijuana inmates in prison.”

“I don’t think that — I don’t think that anyone in pri- – anyone should be in prison for using marijuana,” Biden said, according to a White House pool report. “We’re working on the crime bill now.”

The short answer was Biden’s most comprehensive and explicit statement on cannabis reform since he took office last year.

But it was also something Biden has said before, most notably during the 2020 campaign. While he has yet to commit to fully legalizing cannabis, Biden has long spoken out against incarcerating marijuana.

In a memorable interview on The Breakfast Club in spring 2020, Biden said there was “no point in people going to jail for weed” and explained why he supports decriminalization but not legalization.

“Because they’re trying to figure out whether or not there are any effects on using marijuana, not by directing you to other drugs, but by what it affects. Does it affect long-term brain development and we should wait until the studies are complete,” Biden said. “I think science is important.”

Comments like this — as well as Biden’s refusal to support an end to federal bans — have frustrated advocates of cannabis reform, as well as members of the president’s own party.

In November, three Democratic senators sent Biden a letter urging him to “pardon all persons convicted of nonviolent cannabis offenses, whether previously or currently incarcerated.”

“Our country’s cannabis policy needs a complete overhaul, but you have the power to act now: you can and should issue a blanket pardon for all federal nonviolent cannabis offenses, fulfill your promises to the American people, and transform the lives of dozens of people Thousands of Americans,” Senators Elizabeth Warren, Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley wrote in the letter.

“As a presidential candidate, you argued, ‘We should decriminalize marijuana,’ and ‘Everyone [with a marijuana record] should be released from prison, their records erased, completely zeroed out,'” they wrote. “The first and easiest step in this process is a blanket pardon. The Constitution grants you the power to pardon broad layers of Americans to right widespread wrongs, as previous presidents have done.”

In May, Biden commuted 75 people serving time on nonviolent drug offenses and issued three full pardons.

There is strong support for cannabis legalization among Democrats on Capitol Hill, but that has not yet translated into policy reform.

The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act in April, a bill that would remove cannabis from the federal Controlled Substances Act list.

But the bill has since stalled in the Senate, where Democratic leaders have said they intend to introduce their cannabis reform bill.

In April, Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate leader, said the caucus would publish its marijuana legislation sometime before the August recess, and promised the bill would also remove weed from the Controlled Substances Act.

But there are growing signs that Senate legislation is being scaled back far more than Schumer promised.

Politico reported last month that Schumer “does not have the votes to pass sweeping marijuana decriminalization legislation — although he has repeatedly touted his support for ending federal prohibition,” and that “the finding is prompting Senate Democrats to to look for a compromise on weed”.