White House Touts Biden’s Marijuana Pardons In Preview Of State Of The Union Speech

February 7, 2023 · marijuanamoment.net

The White House and key officials are previewing policies and accomplishments of the Biden administration—including marijuana pardons, drug sentencing reform, harm reduction and enhanced drug war enforcement for fentanyl—ahead of the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

While it remains to be seen if President Joe Biden will explicitly discuss the cannabis and drug policy issues when he appears before the joint session of Congress, the statements are meant to expand on the basic parameters of the annual speech.

If Biden does bring up his cannabis clemency action, it would mark the first time in U.S. history that a president has ever specifically discussed marijuana reform during a State of the Union address.

The White House said in a factsheet that the president will “highlight progress” on criminal justice issues and included a section that directly discussed tackling the “failed approach to marijuana and crack cocaine.”

“The criminalization of marijuana possession has upended too many lives—for conduct that is now legal in many states,” the fact sheet on the administration’s Safer America Plan says. “While white, Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are disproportionately in jail for it.”

Biden’s pardon proclamation, which affected several thousands of people who’ve committed federal cannabis possession offenses, “lifts barriers to housing, employment, and educational opportunities,” it continues.

The pardons that he provided don’t technically expunge the possession records, as that falls beyond his executive authority—but as the factsheet notes, he also encouraged governors to follow his lead by granting relief at the state level where their authority may be different and where the bulk of cannabis cases have been prosecuted.

The president further directed a review into marijuana scheduling, another component of his cannabis actions that the White House is highlighting ahead of the address, saying it is part of how the administration is “guided by science and evidence.”

Biden’s plan additionally “calls on Congress to end once and for all the racially discriminatory sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses,” a policy that he had a hand in enacting during his time as a U.S. senator—when he earned a reputation as a key drug warrior on Capitol Hill.

A separate factsheet from the administration pointed to the administration’s work to expand access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and remove the so-called X-waiver that has limited healthcare provider access to prescription medications meant to combat opioid use disorder.

The White House and key officials are previewing policies and accomplishments of the Biden administration—including marijuana pardons, drug sentencing reform, harm reduction and enhanced drug war enforcement for fentanyl—ahead of the president’s State of the Union address on Tuesday.

While it remains to be seen if President Joe Biden will explicitly discuss the cannabis and drug policy issues when he appears before the joint session of Congress, the statements are meant to expand on the basic parameters of the annual speech.

If Biden does bring up his cannabis clemency action, it would mark the first time in U.S. history that a president has ever specifically discussed marijuana reform during a State of the Union address.

The White House said in a factsheet that the president will “highlight progress” on criminal justice issues and included a section that directly discussed tackling the “failed approach to marijuana and crack cocaine.”

“The criminalization of marijuana possession has upended too many lives—for conduct that is now legal in many states,” the fact sheet on the administration’s Safer America Plan says. “While white, Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are disproportionately in jail for it.”

Biden’s pardon proclamation, which affected several thousands of people who’ve committed federal cannabis possession offenses, “lifts barriers to housing, employment, and educational opportunities,” it continues.

The pardons that he provided don’t technically expunge the possession records, as that falls beyond his executive authority—but as the factsheet notes, he also encouraged governors to follow his lead by granting relief at the state level where their authority may be different and where the bulk of cannabis cases have been prosecuted.

The president further directed a review into marijuana scheduling, another component of his cannabis actions that the White House is highlighting ahead of the address, saying it is part of how the administration is “guided by science and evidence.”

Biden’s plan additionally “calls on Congress to end once and for all the racially discriminatory sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine offenses,” a policy that he had a hand in enacting during his time as a U.S. senator—when he earned a reputation as a key drug warrior on Capitol Hill.

A separate factsheet from the administration pointed to the administration’s work to expand access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone and remove the so-called X-waiver that has limited healthcare provider access to prescription medications meant to combat opioid use disorder.https://www.marijuanamoment.net/white-house-touts-bidens-marijuana-pardons-in-preview-of-state-of-the-union-speech/

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