Excerpt from the Washington Post
Analysis by A. Lee Hannah and Daniel J. Mallinson
President Biden made major news last week when he announced that he will use his pardon power to grant clemency to people convicted of federal crimes for possessing marijuana. No one is currently in federal prison for possessing marijuana. But Biden’s move will clear the record of over 6,000 people convicted previously of possession and possibly thousands more in the District of Columbia.
Biden also directed the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services to review how the federal government classifies marijuana under federal drug laws, possibly leading to classifying marijuana as a drug with both medicinal benefit and potential for abuse. That review of marijuana’s placement on the schedule could take a long time.
Biden’s decisions could affect some midterm congressional elections. But most of the action over legalizing marijuana remains in the states. Here’s why.
How Biden’s move could affect the 2022 midterm elections
In the 2020 Democratic presidential primary, Biden espoused some of the most conservative views on marijuana compared to those of his party rivals. However, Democrats still made marijuana reform a key part of their 2020 platform, promising to decriminalize marijuana use and change its federal classification. Whatever Biden’s personal views, his recent actions follow the party platform to a T.
That’s not all that surprising — especially on the eve of closely contested midterm elections. It’s popular policy, especially with voters of color, younger Democrats and independents. Probably the single candidate with the most to gain is Pennsylvania’s John Fetterman. Running in the most flippable Senate seat for Democrats, Fetterman has made marijuana legalization central to his campaign and to his last four years as Pennsylvania’s lieutenant governor. Fetterman spoke with Biden about marijuana reform at a Labor Day event in Pittsburgh, so the fortuitous timing of the White House’s action allows him to claim some credit in a key race for the Democrats.
What’s more, public views on marijuana have shifted rapidly, something we wrote about here at TMC a few years ago, after Oklahoma voters approved one of the most liberal medical marijuana policies in the nation. More broadly, since 1969, Gallup has been asking Americans if they think the use of marijuana should be legal. The proportion of Americans favoring legalization has steadily increased from only 12 percent in 1969 to 68 percent in 2021, with even half of Republicans now supporting legalization. And when surveys distinguish between medical and recreational marijuana, nine in 10 Americans believe that at least medicinal use should be legal.
