Ethan Hague, Campus Carrier staff writer
Heath Hutcheson, Campus Carrier staff writer
President Biden announced on Oct. 6 that he is officially pardoning individuals who have been convicted of simple possession of marijuana on a federal level, meaning that they had marijuana on their person and available for use.
Senior Carly Stuart, vice president of the Berry College Young Democrats, said that the possession of marijuana charge can often be recategorized to saddle the defendant with additional prison time.
“The problem with that is a lot of times it’s not categorized as simple possession,” Stuart said. “A lot of times it’s categorized as a conspiracy, which is an agreement [between] two or more people to violate the law. Biden’s new policy only affected 6,500 people. And that’s from 1992 to 2021…There’s so much more that we could do, but again, Biden can’t make local and state [governments] forgive them.”
Biden’s pardon has no direct effect on states’ policies, many of which still penalize simple possession.
“He did encourage governors to do the same, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they have to,” Stuart said.
Political Science Professor Abigail Vegter talked about why she thinks Biden may have decided to make this decision when he did. Vegter said that Biden flirted with the idea of legalizing and pardoning marijuana offences on the campaign trail.
“He recognized the inequity involved in prior sentencing for marijuana offenses and some of the problematic consequences of the war on drugs,” Vegter said. “So, some people could see this as the fulfillment of a campaign promise. Some could also argue that it is very convenient timing for him to do this so close to the midterm elections, as a way to bring marijuana policy and other drug policies to the conversation-forcing republicans to answer for their stances on it and making democrats look good by extension in his pardoning.”
In reality, a small number of people have been pardoned. Stuart said that Biden’s current plan of moving marijuana offences from a Schedule I offence to a Schedule II would not legalize the drug.
“Also, if we’re dating back to 1992, a lot of these people would have already been let out,” Stuart said. “One of the things [Democrats] are trying to focus on and we think Biden could do better at is that right now, his goal is to get marijuana from being classified as Schedule I, which is on the same level as heroin, he’s trying to get it down to Schedule II, but that really doesn’t do anything. Just moving it down one tier doesn’t legalize it. If it’s not legalized, it doesn’t really matter. Moving it down to Schedule II just means there would be less jail time if someone were to be convicted, which is good but it’s also not ideal.”
Drugs are classified in different schedules according to their potential for abuse and addiction; Schedule I is the highest, while Schedule V is the lowest. However, because most marijuana offences are convicted on the state level, Biden’s pardon does not affect many people. Vegter said that Biden’s goal may be to gain an advantage with younger voters rather than restore liberty to the incarcerated.
“With Biden doing this he’s really pushing it on the agenda,” Vegter said. “This is an issue that a lot of young people are really passionate about and young people are a demographic that Republicans and Democrats need to win over. It’s a huge voting block and they’re showing that they can turn out in high numbers despite previous assumptions otherwise. The hope is that the effect for other states and other decision makers is that it at least gets them talking about it.”
Stuart said that legalizing marijuana would be more beneficial and impactful.
“If it’s legalized, banks can actually work with marijuana corporations and profit off of that,” Stuart said. “It would forgive a lot of people. 92 out of 20,000 people were sentenced on federal marijuana charges. Basically all of the charges are at a state and local level. Federal-level forgiveness is helpful but it’s really not doing that much.”
Stuart said that the legalization of marijuana would provide a safer experience because consumers could be assured that the drugs were not laced with stronger substances.
“I feel like if it was legalized, and obviously this is just speculation because it’s not, it would just create a safer environment within the law and not have so many people being convicted for just such a simple thing,” Stuart said. “If it is legalized, then the government can regulate it, the state can regulate it, instead of people having to sneak around and maybe get something that’s dangerous, it’s not a good strain or it’s laced or something. If the government can facilitate that, then it’s safer and they also get taxes on it.”
Opponents of legalization might view marijuana as a gateway drug to more harmful drugs, causing them to believe that legalization would lead to more crime and more deaths. However, existing controlled substances such as tobacco can be equally addictive and lead to significant problems, but are not seen as gateway drugs.
“Most of the time, the gateway to hard drugs is trauma and low economic status, or other factors that would disadvantage you in society and push you into that type of usage,” Stuart said. “People assume that marijuana would be more likely to be a gateway drug than like alcohol.”