Former U.S. President Joe Biden commuted the sentences of almost 2,500 inmates convicted of various non-violent drug offenses (including marijuana) during his last days in the Oval Office. Biden noted that with this last round of commutations, he has granted clemency to more Americans than any other president in U.S. history.
Biden also conducted two mass pardon rounds early in his term where he also granted clemency to Americans who had federal marijuana possession offenses on their records. He released a statement saying the last round of commutations ‘provided relief’ for people who had received long prison sentences based on ‘outdated drug crime sentencing enhancements’ and distinctions that have long been discredited.
The statement also noted that the passage of bipartisan criminal justice reform bills like the First Step Act and the Fair Sentencing Act underscore the need to ‘equalize sentencing disparities.’ Federal law currently classifies marijuana as a Class I drug, similar to cocaine and heroin, with a high potential for abuse.
This classification, coupled with tough drug sentencing laws enacted more than two decades ago, ensured many Americans were handed harsh sentences for relatively minor and non-violent drug crimes such as possession. Now that dozens of states have legalized either recreational or medical marijuana, there has been a concerted effort to grant clemency to individuals who are incarcerated due to cannabis possession.
According to Biden, his actions represent a major step toward addressing ‘historic wrongs,’ fixing drug sentencing disparities, and giving ‘deserving’ Americans the chance to return to their homes after years of incarceration. The former president also said he was proud of his record-breaking rounds of clemency.
Biden may have outdone most of his predecessors in granting clemency through the past four years, but frustrations remain. Scores of people are still in federal prison with cannabis-related convictions, many of them for non-violent sales offenses.
Criminal justice advocates called out the former president for granting his son clemency for drug-related offenses when there were more than 3,000 Americans still imprisoned in federal facilities for drug crimes, and Biden has been criticized for failing to keep the cannabis promises he made during his presidential campaign.
Unfortunately, now that President Donald Trump has assumed office, the window for further commutations is most likely closed for the next four years. President Trump is at odds with the outgoing president on several key issues, and granting clemency to individuals with cannabis-related offenses or convictions likely isn’t on Trump’s agenda.
Cannabis firms like Canopy Growth Corp. (NASDAQ: CGC) (TSX: WEED) will be watching to see how U.S. marijuana policy shapes up under the new administration over the coming years.
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