President Joe Biden recently announced the pardoning of all federal offenses of the “simple possession of marijuana” on Oct. 6. The pardon will only apply to federal offenses of marijuana, as the President only has the power to pardon federal offenses. As a direct result, proponents of the legalization of marijuana may be disappointed with how few people will be pardoned, with only about 6,500 cases being eligible for a pardon.
The Biden and Harris Administration has remained openly and publicly in support of marijuana, though the administration has long received criticisms of hypocrisy on this front—Biden was instrumental in criminalizing marijuana further with his involvement in the 1994 Crime Control Act, where he commented that his bill was “much tougher than the president’s.” Even more recently, there was a controversy around the White House firing staffers who had a history of marijuana usage while Harris has openly commented about their past marijuana usage. These events are confirmation that the Biden administration is not as committed to the cause of marijuana legalization as proponents of marijuana are.
“I’m still not satisfied with just a simple pardoning,” said Chad Roberts, who owns Foggy Acres, a business which grows and sells cannabis products such as CBD oils. “My unbiased opinion and speculation is that this is simply because of polling reasons. The Biden and Harris administration already said that they were going to federally…
