Pres. Biden could expand the economy and improve racial equity with the strike of a pen by awarding clemency to those with federal cannabis offenses, Senator. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) summarily stated.
During a discussion with Pod Save America, the politician spoke briefly about how Joe Biden could utilize his executive influence to effect important revisions with respect to cannabis policy reform and student loan indebtedness. The aforementioned issues converge with social justice and the economy, Sen. Warren stated.
While Senator Warren began by stating that Biden could help eliminate the wealth gap by canceling student debt, she stated cannabis is the same type of matter that President Biden could address with a single action.
Warren wants President Biden to seal the records associated with basic cannabis offenses. ‘I want [Biden] to let people out [of prison.] If you’re a non-violent criminal [and] all [law enforcement] has on you is a [low-level] cannabis crime, let folks go,” Warren said. “States have updated their laws on [cannabis.] We’ve finally realized, this idea that going after cannabis via gateway drugs and the overall war on drugs—we just understood it never presented any sense scientifically and was a method to really engage in a form of oppression of urban communities and neighborhoods of color.”
Senator Warren, who led other U.S. senators on a letter to President Biden earlier this month calling on him to allow a mass pardon for those with low-level cannabis convictions, broaden on the idea that presidential clemency would improve economic opportunities in the nation.
Offenders bestowed with relief would get to participate in the federal economy. They have a better opportunity at getting jobs. They have a better probability of getting promotions. They can apply for scholarships that would contrarily be refusedto them.”
‘In short, what your best support as a nation? It’s your constituents—people who should be part of our grand economy, part of our broad society,” Senator Warren said.
Sen. Warren also noted that ‘cannabis enforcement has befallen much harder on individuals of color, and it’s time for us to recognize that and simply admit the failure of our systems.’
A recently issued Congressional Research Service (CRS) publication confirmed that the president has the power to grant mass pardons for low-level cannabis offenses. It also said that the government can move to federally legalize cannabis without anticipating for legislators to act on a relative measure.
Similarly, a collection of approximately 150 celebrities, athletes, politicians, law enforcement officials, and academics penned a letter that was mailed to President Biden. The letter urged him to provide a ‘full, comprehensive, and unconditional pardon to all individuals with non-violent federal cannabis crimes.
That message came just as the government began rallying for nearly 1,000 people who were provisionally placed on home detention for federal drug offenses to file a clemency application.
Earlier this year, Biden received a letter from roughly 37 members of U.S. Congress that called on him to use executive jurisdiction to mass pardon all individuals with non-violent federal cannabis convictions.
The request for this unique form of presidential pardon is designed on actions taken by Pres. Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter during the 1970s categorically pardoned Americans who dodged the draft for the Vietnam War.
Meanwhile, the trio of senators is contending for a universal pardon. Legislators in both chambers are expecting to push comprehensive legislation to end cannabis prohibition.
The House Judiciary Committee passed a measure to legalize cannabis on a federal level. Senate leadership is in the middle of concluding their cannabis reform proposal. Meanwhile, a handful of Republican members of Congress interjected a bill to legalize and tax cannabis federally.
Last month, Sen. Warren and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) independently sent a letter to the attorney general making the case that the Justice Department should begin the cannabis de-scheduling process to allow states to manage cannabis as they deem fit, start to repair the harm caused by eons of racial inequalities in the enforcement of cannabis ordinances, and promote valuable medicinal research.