In President Joe Biden's waning days at the White House, he’s facing increasing pressure to act on his promise to pardon cannabis prisoners, especially after his widely criticized pardon of his son Hunter Biden.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked in a press briefing on Dec. 6 if the president is considering “blanket pardons” for government officials who are being targeted by President-elect Donald Trump as perceived enemies in order to protect them from retribution, as was previously reported by the NY Times. While Trump’s list of enemies does not (thankfully) include cannabis prisoners, Jean-Pierre said the president is reviewing next steps and "there will be more to come."
"I’m not going to get ahead of the president. But what I can say is that the president is reviewing other pardons and commutations," she said at the press briefing. "I hope folks don't forget what the president has been able to do — the actions that he's been able to take over the last four years."
It’s been over two years since Biden announced he would pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. Since then, not one single person among the approximately 3,000 people has been released. This fact is starting to irk advocates, prisoners' families and we can only assume those still sitting in prison.
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Why Is This So Difficult?
Further pressed by reporters to spill the plans on what the Biden administration intends to do on this touchy topic of pardons and commutations, Jean-Pierre listed the president’s accomplishments.
"He’s issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms," Jean-Pierre said. "This is in addition to groundbreaking categorical pardons that the president issued to address marijuana possession convictions, military convictions and the LGBTQI+ community."
Meanwhile, internal pressure grows. In a late November letter addressed to Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) as well as Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) along with nine more colleagues urged them to expand the president’s marijuana pardons and deprioritize federal cannabis prosecutions before the end of the Biden’s term in the White House.
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Photo: Benzinga edit of images by Wikimedia Commons and 2H Media on Unsplash
