BREAKING: Biden announces pardon for all federal marijuana possession convictions
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President Joe Biden announced he would pardon all previous federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana, the White House announced Thursday.
The pardons also apply to anyone in Washington DC convicted of simple possession of marijuana, a senior government official told reporters.
“No one should be in jail just for using marijuana,” Biden said.
More than 6,500 people with criminal convictions for simple cannabis possession will be affected by the pardons, and thousands more will be pardoned under DC law.
“Like I said when I was running for president, nobody should be in prison just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said.
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“It’s legal in many states, and criminal convictions for marijuana possession have created unnecessary barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities,” he continued. “And that’s before you address the racial differences as to who suffers the consequences. While whites and blacks and browns use marijuana at similar rates, blacks and browns are arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionately high rates.”
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Biden also urged all governors to follow his lead, saying he will ask the attorney general and the Department of Health and Human Services to review federal law’s classification of marijuana as a Schedule 1 drug, the same classification as heroin and LSD .
This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.
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