Dems Call on Biden to Limit Weed Prosecutions Before Trump Takes Over

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The president-elect has indicated he could be open to cannabis reform, but the president has the power to do something now

A coalition of Democratic senators and representatives are calling on the Biden administration to finalize its plans to limit marijuana prosecutions at the federal level before he leaves office.

In a Tuesday letter drafted by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), legislators wrote that the simple descheduling of marijuana “will not end federal criminalization, resolve its harms, or meaningfully address the gap between federal and state cannabis policy. Possession and use of recreational marijuana — and much state-legal medical marijuana — will continue to be a violation of federal law.”

The letter was signed by six other Senators, and six members of the House. The signatories include Sens. Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), as well as Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.).

President Joe Biden issued several rounds of pardons to individuals convicted of marijuana possession and other non-violent drug offenses throughout his administration. “Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities,” Biden said in 2022 after the wave of pardons.

Lawmakers point out that while the pardons “relieved of some collateral consequences that flowed from their marijuana convictions,” they have “resulted in virtually no releases from prison, because few individuals were in federal prisons for these low-level offenses.” They point to estimates that at least 3,000 individuals still remain in federal prison for other marijuana-related offenses.

“The Biden Administration has the opportunity to further reduce the harms of marijuana’s criminalization before the end of this Administration,” the lawmakers write, requesting that Biden “issue broader clemency — including another round of pardons and commutations to reduce sentences or end terms of incarceration — for individuals convicted of other cannabis-related offenses,” as well as issuing a memorandum deprioritizing the prosecution of individuals and businesses for “or state-legal marijuana activity.”

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Data cited by lawmakers notes that deprioritization of arrests and seizures related to marijuana possession are necessary given that “of the almost 700,000 drug possession arrests each year, one-third are for marijuana possession, and Black Americans are almost four times more likely than white Americans to be arrested for marijuana possession.”

Trump’s picks to staff his Cabinet and high-level executive roles already indicate the potential for intense disagreement over the future of weed legalization under a second Trump term. In one of his only rational medical stances, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — Trump’s pick to head the Department of Health and Human Services — has advocated for the rollback of restrictions on access to medical marijuana. By contrast Marty Makary, Trump’s pick to head Food and Drug Administration, has called weed “a gateway drug,” and suggested pot use leads to cognitive decline.

Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first pick to serve as attorney general, was one of the most pro-cannabis members of Congress before his resignation. His replacement, former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, has a sketchier record that includes a vote against cannabis legalization in Florida.

Trump first attorney general during his first term in office, Jeff Sessions, rescinded Obama-era policies directing the Justice Department to deprioritize anti-marijuana enforcement in states where the use and possession of the drug had been legalized. Trump himself, however, has indicated he could be open to progress on cannabis policy. He granted clemency to some Americans incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses on his way out of office, and this September wrote on Truth Social that “it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” that he would be voting in favor of Florida’s cannabis legalization amendment, and that as president he will “continue to focus on research to unlock the medical uses of marijuana to a Schedule 3 drug, and work with Congress to pass common sense laws.”