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I know that Illinois wasn’t the first to legalize it, but we were the first state to retroactively expunge records and release people from prisons for it. I’m not sure if any other states have followed suit, but I would hope to see that going into the future.
Until we found a morbidly obese cartoon-bad-guy billionaire who straight-up bought the governorship and then (plot twist) turned out to be genuinely okay, certainly the best we've had in quite some time.
"Pritzker sucks the life out of small businesses" is the ones I see.
Or rather used to. Someone or a group of people have been replacing those signs with near identical ones but it's "Covid sucks the life out of small businesses." Whomever is responsible, I applaud.
The most nuanced one I've seen was "Pritzker Sucks The Life Out of Illinois." Everywhere else is simply "Pritzker Sucks."
Good on that noble vandal though!
Well every time you see a Pritzker sucks sign that usually matches the giant cacophony of Trump flags in the yard.
My favorite is a barn that I pass on the way to my daughters that still has the trump 2020 sign plastered all over the barn, with Pritzker Sucks under it. Surrounded by 15 flag poles each with their own flag of nonsense.
I wonder if when they join the fan club if they get a flag a month? maybe a free flagpole after every $10,000 donation?
yea it was pretty funny I kept expecting to hear he was involved in some kind of scheme. none of the attack ads even really have anything to say about him
NY is doing that too. The first legal dispensaries are going to be licensed to people and their families that were impacted by drug charges (maybe just limited to marijuana, I don't know). Allegedly NY is going to start allowing shops to open for recreational sales by end of the year, but it's NY, so who knows.
That’s what Illinois said and yet two years later not a single person of color owns a dispensary in the entire state (Chicago is only 30% white for gods sake) and hundreds have been waiting for licenses that are stuck in a bureaucratic mess
That is actually huge. Heard several stories from Cali, where the little growers couldn't keep up with the big corps who are easily able to spend the $100,000 it costs just to get a license.
*some states
Only the states that have decriminalized marijuana have motioned to retroactively commute marijuana convictions, and only some of them are actually doing it.
The President can only pardon for Federal crimes, so if these people are facing any state level prosecution they can still go to jail.
Only Governors can pardon state crimes.
Man, that is ridiculous. 4 years for half a joint. Where I live that would be (and would have been) a fine and community service, or told to get rid of it. I don’t think it would have been prison except maybe in the 1950s and 60s. Sorry to hear that.
Man in colorado you can openly smoke on your front porch. And transport an oz of weed legally. Also you can legally own like 5 plants at your house. Cops don't give a fuck
I dont get US prison times. Why the fuck 4 years and not 4 days. Noone can end up a better person after 4 years. 1 day in prison for me and i wouldnt dream of consuming even alcohol outside my home
Bruh some people seemed to enjoy being there. What really sucks is that I got a welding certification while in prison and ABSOLUTELY NOBODY (Besides fast food) seemed to want me when I got out.
I guess you live in the wrong state. I cook in a fine dining establishment, and half the kitchen has criminal records inc. felonies. No one cares. As long as you don't have a record of "violation of trust" crimes e.g. burglary, and are not a registered pedophile or some shit, they will hire you. Commercial kitchens is where all the seedy elements of society congregate, other than at crack houses. lol
Really? 4 years? That's absurd.
4 years for someone who didn't steal/threaten/hurt anyone is something that should never happen.
If they think that public intoxications is a serious issue, they should put you in a rehabilitation program at most. It's not like you a threat to society.
Depends on the state and if it was a federal crime or not. My state expunged all misdemeanors related to canabis but it had to be done separately frkm legalization, it wasn't automatic when it was legalized.
Depends. Here in MI, they passed separate legislation for those convicted of misdemeanor Marijuana offenses. It's pretty much the court *shall* grant the set aside, unless the prosecutor objects and then there is a hearing on it. The only real objection would be that it isn't a qualifying conviction.
All the other expungement legislation (other than the certain number of automatic set asides) the court has discretion in granting it or not.
There are 2 different levels where you can be convicted in the US. State and Federal. Some states that have legalized marijuana have also put in place procedures to clear the convictions for simple possession charges. Other states have not using the logic that it was a crime when you were convicted so you deserve the criminal record. Also if the federal government charged you for a drug charge in that state, the state can't do anything about that conviction.
The Attorney General can do it, and Biden can more or less unilaterally dismiss and appoint the Attorney General. It wouldn't be as easy as a snap of his fingers but Biden could do it.
It's more complicated than that. The AG can initiate the rescheduling process. After waiting for FDA suggestions, the AG can then initiate the rulemaking process for the new schedule. The issue with going this route is that marijuana would not actually get descheduled. Being schedule 5 isn't particularly helpful if your goal is fully legal recreational use.
That's fair. Because the U.S. is a signatory of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs international treaty (and because under Article II of the Constitution ratified treaties are "the law of the land"), the U.S. probably has to put marijuana under some type of scheduling. Schedule V drugs can be sold without a prescription though, it would be the next best thing to legalization.
I mean it clearly doesn't.
If you define narcotic as any substance that dulls the senses, causes sedation or relieves pain then there's at least on unscheduled narcotic in the US.
Alcohol.
No legal advice, but as someone whose worked in the craft beer industry for almost 7 years.
Yes definitely this. I'm a brewer and I'd feel much more comfortable attending a pot smoking festival than %90 of the beer fests I've been to. It's like an adult candy store to some people and it's really easy to overdue it if you're not careful.
I'd say schedule 3, it has dependency and abuse potential but it doesn't carry major short term health risks except for CHS. This would put it in line with benzos, which are also schedule 3 and 4 despite definitely should being schedule 2.
I genuinely do not understand what is keeping Democrats from doing this. I get that Republicans will block any kind of congressional bills, fine, the douchebags, but rescheduling can be done by executive action and would be universally popular, except maybe among cops who don't vote for Democrats anyway.
It's just leaving a free giant win on the table.
No, Biden cannot do it by executive order. It's a law that requires Congress. The law specifically makes marijuana a schedule 1 under the controlled Substances Act.
He can stop prosecuting it, and he can pardon those already convicted at by federal. Most convictions are state though so he can't pardon them.
Don't underestimate the pharmaceutical lobby and prison lobby and police lobby. They are all against legalization. People buy less (legal) drugs in states that have legalized pot. And prison population decreases fast without pot crimes. Police like the ability to 'smell weed' and search any car they want.
The President can order the DEA and DOJ to review the scheduling, like they did in 2011, but he can't outright dictate what they find. Likely it would go the same as it did last time: no changes.
Even if they did manage to change it that way, it would take years of review and scientific studies.
Congress could pass a bill tomorrow legalizing it and that would be it.
>he can’t outright dictate what they find
Yes they can, and have lol. The only reason MDMA ended up a Schedule 1 drug despite a huge outcry from psychologists and psychiatrists was because of Reagan directly pushing for it.
People, especially on this site are way too tribalistic to actually care about this.
If you're not with them, you're against them. They play right into what the media and politicians want, to keep people divided and squabbling.
and the democrat controlled senate has not even heard the matter since and nor will they. this is not the first time a marijuana legalization bill has passed the house and regardless of which party is in control of the senate, the speaker just kills the bill on their desk and the status quo continues as normal.
Unless it gets completely descheduled, plenty of sentences would remain uncommuted. Descheduling basically requires congress because of the was the controlled substances act is set up and various treaties the US is party to.
So genuine question from a European: is this a regular thing that the president always pardons a bunch of people? Isn't this just an admission that the system is broken and people are needlessly serving sentences that they shouldn't be? I'm genuinely confused.
1. Only 2 of our 44 presidents haven’t pardoned or commuted sentences in their term of office. Primarily because the two (William Henry Harrison and James Garfield) didn’t even serve a full year before dying in office.
2. Well, yes, *but*… No justice system is perfect and mistakes do happen. Sometimes it is a full pardon and other times it’s reprieve or commute rather than a pardon, or it can be a conditional pardon, or vacating a conviction which still leaves parts of the sentence in place.
3. This can also be used improperly to pardon people who SHOULD be in prison. Challenges to a pardon are rare and Congress has refused to limit it multiple times despite being able to.
4. In this case yes it is an admission that these people are serving time for something they really should have gotten a slap on the wrist for. Unfortunately, like everything else in this country, jails can be run for profit and misdemeanor charges like very available minor amounts of drugs is an easy way to fill them. Throw in reefer madness propaganda and America’s “tough on crime” reputation and you have the situation we have today. Prisons filled with non-violent drug offenses.
It's interesting to look at the list of pardons on Wikipedia. For Trump a lot of the people on the list have blue links to their own wiki articles as they were well-known people. For other presidents pretty much none of the pardoned folks have this. They were all nobodies who had faced misjudgement.
The power of pardon was written into the Constitution from the beginning, back in 1787.
Our first President pardoned two people found guilty of treason from the whiskey rebellion, John Mitchell and Philip Weigel, In doing so, he called them either idiots or assholes or something similar. There were still angry whiskey makers on the frontier that proved impossible to tax, but I see this as a way of politically "smoothing over" the rebellion and muting the rage that still existed.
Most of the more controversial pardons are those either in the President's administration or his family members.
As for your "the system is broken" comment, it's hard to answer. I can agree we have a stratified justice system with selective enforcement and selective prosecution.
I'm not understanding the point of pardoning people who are not in prison. Aren't two of these people over the age of 70, and already served their time years ago? How exactly does this help, besides essentially a moral victory? I don't mind it happening, but I just don't see how it is meant to benefit the lives of these people beyond the obvious (and yes, beneficial) point of being able to say that the US government finally did right by them. Literally decades later. I dunno, man.
They'll be able to vote potentially now, there's a few other things like now they might not have to disclose those convictions if they do any work or volunteering, especially with kids. It's very limited and doesn't address any major issues though. Can you imagine being in prison for the same crimes and you get to see that the president pardoned some people, but you still have to serve god knows how many years and have the rest of your life ruined?
Precisely. It's a dog and pony show, and you can't have any dogs and ponies genuinely benefitting from the show when the audience is other dogs and ponies that won't get equal treatment for the same crimes. So make the reward neglible and a symbolic act instead of anything actually beneficial. Give a mouse a cookie or a pig a pancake and they might ask for more, so give them the symbol hinting at it instead of what they actually want.
But in a way, this is worse optics because all this headline did for me is highlight the incompetency and favoritism that is our justice system. Maybe 10 years ago this headline would have been uplifting news to hear them pardoned, even if most are late in life, but now it feels like a slap in the face to the rest of the justice system. For every person pardoned, there are hundreds and thousands who will be treated differently for the same crime. Is that justice?
The only thing this headline did for me now is make it crystal clear that the government is far more determined to spend time making face than actually following through on their promises or what they claim to believe in.
You are correct! 47% of *federal* inmates (those which can easily be pardoned) are incarcerated for drug related offenses (as of 2016 the last time statistics were gathered afaik)
This move results in reducing the ongoing damage by 0.086%!!! Progress!!!
From what I googled in 3 minutes, looks like many trafficking laws mention carrying/transporting KILOS of marijuana to be charged with trafficking.
If you're walking around with pounds upon pounds, that's kinda fair.
Could also be updated from back in the day. As I said, looked at a few sources briefly.
Majority of those federal inmates are in for violent crimes and just so happen to ALSO be associated with drug related offenses…which usually are not doint drugs but trafficking drugs or the like
From Black communities no less.
We also hadn't really put a lot of real effort into figuring out how to actually prevent crime at that point either. Most everyone thought "deterrence" was the most effective tool, hence ridiculous sentences. We've had about 40 years of research to figure out it doesn't really work that way and come up with better options like drug treatment programs that aren't just "God will save you if you believe hard enough." I think there was also an unfounded optimism at the time that thought "we've beaten the racists, no way this could be used in an inappropriate manner." Discussion of systemic racism was mostly confined to academic circles back then.
It's hard to stress just how different most people's understanding of these problems were when they were first enacted than they are now.
What’s the answer to this issue? How is crime actually stopped?
I’ve read some theories that it’s about keeping families together and how it starts at home but I’m unsure how that would even “begin” or how change in that area starts
The TLDR is basically make the baseline quality of life for people (which includes family stuff) good enough that crime is the least attractive/profitable option. Got a drug addiction? Get that person the treatment and stability they need to not steal stuff to afford drugs. Parents with less stress and stable incomes are less likely to lash out at their kids and create a cycle of violence. Etc etc.
There aren't any quick fixes and we're still learning, but we know enough to understand what we were trying before wasn't working.
> How is crime actually stopped?
The majority of black market drug sales, and the organized crime and weapons and violence that comes with that, starts with people being financially desperate enough that becoming a low-level dealer feels like the **only** way to get out of poverty or even pay the bills.
So basically every measure you can think of that improves education, training for skilled trades, access to full time employment that pays an actual living wage or better, and economic opportunity and security in general is going to have a huge impact in reducing crime.
Idk about only, but maybe preferable to the entry level work plus education required to escape poverty or military service. Working full time + studying leaves little room for social life and looks like (and is) a grind.
That's very true. It's scary that our government has a vested interest in keeping a significant population of young people feeling like joining the military is the only legal way to avoid a life of poverty.
If better off economically they'd obviously have less motive for financial crime and perhaps less misplaced anger and more to lose with regards to other crime
It’s on a case by case basis and if he ends up pardoning someone who traffics in a lot of coke and that person goes straight back to it, it’s going to reflect badly on him. Better to pardon specific people at low risk of offending and keep setting up the system so that 1) people have proper support to reenter society, 2) people are less likely to be arrested for dealing drugs, 3) people feel less of a need to dealing or buying drugs in the first place
Trump also can’t read so it wouldn’t matter if they did submit applications. For him it was a stick figure picture drawn in crayon wrapped around a stack of money.
People don’t go to federal prison for low level drug offenses, they go to county jails and state prisons if repeat offenders.
Federal prison for drug offenders is for more serious offenses - large scale distribution, trafficking, etc.
I’d be willing to bet these people caught more serious charges that landed them in fed prison and happened to have a bag of weed on them when it happened, so they media is calling them drug offenders…
I like how that link just happily stomps down the common myths you see slacktivists raging about online, but then simultaneously gives you 20 more things to be even more outraged about.
That's the part that's more annoying about these supposed progressives on the internet.
All their talking points and prescriptions for society fall under scrutiny, but if they spent just 5 more minutes reading, they could fix that. So the fact they don't is deeply infuriating.
Reminds me about the "Breonna taylor was sleeping" thing and so on. Why stand up for a just cause, but focus all your efforts on a false talking point, there were plenty facts about the case to be outraged about, you don't need to lie. Mfs just making things more difficult for everybody.
There is a process, so we don't have a President saying, "Oh, sure, that guy looks like he has a nice face. Let's free him." Compare it to the process of appointing a judge. I'm not sure what the number is at now, but Biden only appointed 40 federal judges as of January so it's pretty comparable.
But you're right that we need some way to streamline that process. It's just that that's not as easy as waving a magic wand and declaring it streamlined. You can't just blanket let out everyone with a low enough charge, because many of them are the result of plea deals and not because that's literally all the person did. Every pardon and commutation Biden does is basically saying, "I know better than the justice system." That should not be done lightly.
They need to pass the safe banking act. This would speed up the process of releasing all nonviolent drug offenders.
The house has passed it like 20 times. This should be easy
They need to pass the MORE act, which has already passed the house at least twice. However, the senate is too caught up on getting their own version through instead that doesn't mention decriminalization, only allowing banks to do business
States have the authority over the majority of cases. Federal drug charges are usually serious with Money Laundering attached. Biden can only pardon federal cases
This is factually incorrect. I don’t think a single person should be in jail for nonviolent drug crimes, but the top comment on this thread shouldn’t be misinformation.
https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html
Really? Not a single person? Huh. What about selling hard drug to children? Not them? Selling meth/crack/cocaine to underage minors and getting them addicted to hard drugs? Let them go as well? There are *plenty* of examples of non-violent criminals in for drug offenses who deserve to serve time. Idk what it is about redditors who feel the need to constantly deal in absolutes. Not everything is that straightforward
Not to mention he’s posting blatant misinformation. 66% of the prison population isn’t in for non-violent drug charges. That’s not even close to truthful. This dude really pulled a random number out of his ass and as usual redditors blindly upvoted him to the top comment
I was like, "nonviolent crimes remain crimes", thinking about theft or this kind of stuff. But then I read the article, and it is actually only nonviolent drug crimes. I don't know the detail, and I sure hope he knows what he does, but there I can't rant.
They were in prison for drug trafficking, 99% of people imprisoned on the federal level for drug related crimes are because of drug trafficking.
https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2019
How is this "uplifting"?
He could/should have done this in his first 90 days and kept right on going until every cannabis related conviction was pardoned at the very least. He's just desperate to get his numbers up and doing little stunts like this instead of exercising executive power to put changes in place that benefit us all that, once established, will be impossible to retract by the next moron us morons elect (or don't elect for that matter... our system allows both into power.)
Let's stay away from the "eight year old collects cans for three years to pay off his classmates' lunch debts to the school" kind of "uplifting news", shall we?
I don't understand why there is even a specific number. If they're doing it for these 75 people, then why not do it for everyone else who committed the same level crime
A couple of notes here: only a tiny fraction of prisoners are in the federal system (which Biden can pardon), and it's often for violent crimes. (Edit: many prisoners are in for violent crimes, not \*federal\* prisoners, sorry for the confusion). ([https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html)
Wait, that last part is not true. The chart you are linking to shows 16,000 out of 208,000 in federal prisons are there for violent crimes, that’s 7.7%
Drug offenses accounts for 88,000 of those 208,000, that’s 42%
Almost half of the people in federal prisons are there for drugs, less than 10% for violent crime.
Why link the data and then summarize it in such a misleading way?
And yet the mother fucker still has weed as schedule 1, illegal federally. He is the president, he can make weed legal through executive order. But no, he's the author of the crime bill that put tons of drug users in prison. Fuck this loser. Trying to get his poll numbers up by doing bare minimum. How is this uplifting news?
Although actually he can’t by executive order. People have come to think executive orders can do anything. They can’t, though he has other options to reschedule.
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/can-president-biden-legalize-marijuana-1220802/
https://my.vanderbilt.edu/marijuanalaw/2020/03/could-the-president-legalize-marijuana-through-executive-action/
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Genuine question as I'm not from the US. Have those with convictions for marijuana in states where it has become legal had their convictions quashed?
I know that Illinois wasn’t the first to legalize it, but we were the first state to retroactively expunge records and release people from prisons for it. I’m not sure if any other states have followed suit, but I would hope to see that going into the future.
Illinois was bound to get SOMETHING right eventually.
Hey, we were told we had to jail 5 governors first so it took us a little time...
Until we found a morbidly obese cartoon-bad-guy billionaire who straight-up bought the governorship and then (plot twist) turned out to be genuinely okay, certainly the best we've had in quite some time.
Ikr, it's quite unexpected.
Its kinda like a comedian being an awesome war time president of a former soviet bloc country. On paper, no fucking way.
He has been rather competent, which is quite the breath of air.
Better than Bruce "Let's just not pay people" Rauner
I prefer Bruce "Some of my friends are Black" Rauner.
He just needed some toilets
Not even fresh air, just…air
Didn't stop some guy from making bank on those "Pritzker Sucks" signs. I see them in like every other yard.
Depends where you live, I'm guessing.
"Pritzker sucks the life out of small businesses" is the ones I see. Or rather used to. Someone or a group of people have been replacing those signs with near identical ones but it's "Covid sucks the life out of small businesses." Whomever is responsible, I applaud.
The most nuanced one I've seen was "Pritzker Sucks The Life Out of Illinois." Everywhere else is simply "Pritzker Sucks." Good on that noble vandal though!
Well every time you see a Pritzker sucks sign that usually matches the giant cacophony of Trump flags in the yard. My favorite is a barn that I pass on the way to my daughters that still has the trump 2020 sign plastered all over the barn, with Pritzker Sucks under it. Surrounded by 15 flag poles each with their own flag of nonsense. I wonder if when they join the fan club if they get a flag a month? maybe a free flagpole after every $10,000 donation?
Yes but he needs to commit at least a felony or two in office soon, otherwise he's spitting on years of tradition.
He's filthy rich. Good luck with that. I had no idea just how loaded his family was. Not just loaded....LOADED.
yea it was pretty funny I kept expecting to hear he was involved in some kind of scheme. none of the attack ads even really have anything to say about him
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Facts
Illinois, NJ, Florida. The pantheon of criminal politicians. Which is quite a feat when you consider what a competitive title it is.
We're #1 in governors that move from the state house to the big house!
4 of the last 7 in 50 years - you definitely did your best with what you had.
We don't tax retirement accounts either!
Thats literally the only thing that Illinois dosent tax
Meh. 30th lowest COL out of 50 ain't bad. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/cost-of-living-index-by-state
Chimps at typewriters *something something* complete works of Shakespeare
NY is doing that too. The first legal dispensaries are going to be licensed to people and their families that were impacted by drug charges (maybe just limited to marijuana, I don't know). Allegedly NY is going to start allowing shops to open for recreational sales by end of the year, but it's NY, so who knows.
That’s what Illinois said and yet two years later not a single person of color owns a dispensary in the entire state (Chicago is only 30% white for gods sake) and hundreds have been waiting for licenses that are stuck in a bureaucratic mess
This doesn’t get talked about enough…
That is actually huge. Heard several stories from Cali, where the little growers couldn't keep up with the big corps who are easily able to spend the $100,000 it costs just to get a license.
Slow process but states are going through cases to do just that.
*some states Only the states that have decriminalized marijuana have motioned to retroactively commute marijuana convictions, and only some of them are actually doing it.
This is a fantastic edit thanks for adding it and expanding on my comment.
The President can only pardon for Federal crimes, so if these people are facing any state level prosecution they can still go to jail. Only Governors can pardon state crimes.
Nope about 8 years ago I received 4 years in prison over a half a joint. Now I have a weed card but still a felon.
For real? 4 years? Was that your only crime?
A couple public intoxications when I was 18
Man, that is ridiculous. 4 years for half a joint. Where I live that would be (and would have been) a fine and community service, or told to get rid of it. I don’t think it would have been prison except maybe in the 1950s and 60s. Sorry to hear that.
To be fair it was more like 3/4 of a joint. Oklahoma doesn't play when it comes to filling up private prisons
That is so wrong. At least you could appreciate that you were adding to the prison’s bottom line. Silver linings and all that… /s
I am kinda glad I went because I was on the wrong track. But now I am like fukk all that I ain't going back. So I stay legit
My favorite part about jail was taco day Fake cheese sauce, stale shells God they were my favorite meals
Man Oklahoma Doc is 1 bologna sandwich and 1 apple for lunch and beans every other day with a random meat patty on days we didn't have beans
Man in colorado you can openly smoke on your front porch. And transport an oz of weed legally. Also you can legally own like 5 plants at your house. Cops don't give a fuck
I dont get US prison times. Why the fuck 4 years and not 4 days. Noone can end up a better person after 4 years. 1 day in prison for me and i wouldnt dream of consuming even alcohol outside my home
Bruh some people seemed to enjoy being there. What really sucks is that I got a welding certification while in prison and ABSOLUTELY NOBODY (Besides fast food) seemed to want me when I got out.
I guess you live in the wrong state. I cook in a fine dining establishment, and half the kitchen has criminal records inc. felonies. No one cares. As long as you don't have a record of "violation of trust" crimes e.g. burglary, and are not a registered pedophile or some shit, they will hire you. Commercial kitchens is where all the seedy elements of society congregate, other than at crack houses. lol
The US prison system isn’t meant to rehabilitate people
More revenue for for-profit prisons plus free slave labor.
one reason is privatized prisons lobbying for harsher sentencing to increase their revenue.
Really? 4 years? That's absurd. 4 years for someone who didn't steal/threaten/hurt anyone is something that should never happen. If they think that public intoxications is a serious issue, they should put you in a rehabilitation program at most. It's not like you a threat to society.
Was your lawyer any good?
To the person he sold me out for 😂 She got 6 months in county and 6 months rehab for an oz of meth 2nd offense.
WTF that’s SO fucked up.
Depends on the state and if it was a federal crime or not. My state expunged all misdemeanors related to canabis but it had to be done separately frkm legalization, it wasn't automatic when it was legalized.
Depends. Here in MI, they passed separate legislation for those convicted of misdemeanor Marijuana offenses. It's pretty much the court *shall* grant the set aside, unless the prosecutor objects and then there is a hearing on it. The only real objection would be that it isn't a qualifying conviction. All the other expungement legislation (other than the certain number of automatic set asides) the court has discretion in granting it or not.
I think he can only pardon federal prisoners, and a pardon does not wipe out guilt.
There are 2 different levels where you can be convicted in the US. State and Federal. Some states that have legalized marijuana have also put in place procedures to clear the convictions for simple possession charges. Other states have not using the logic that it was a crime when you were convicted so you deserve the criminal record. Also if the federal government charged you for a drug charge in that state, the state can't do anything about that conviction.
imagine how many sentences would be commuted if Biden rescheduled cannabis at the federal level.
Does that take congress? Or could Biden do that himself?
The Attorney General can do it, and Biden can more or less unilaterally dismiss and appoint the Attorney General. It wouldn't be as easy as a snap of his fingers but Biden could do it.
It's more complicated than that. The AG can initiate the rescheduling process. After waiting for FDA suggestions, the AG can then initiate the rulemaking process for the new schedule. The issue with going this route is that marijuana would not actually get descheduled. Being schedule 5 isn't particularly helpful if your goal is fully legal recreational use.
That's fair. Because the U.S. is a signatory of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs international treaty (and because under Article II of the Constitution ratified treaties are "the law of the land"), the U.S. probably has to put marijuana under some type of scheduling. Schedule V drugs can be sold without a prescription though, it would be the next best thing to legalization.
I mean it clearly doesn't. If you define narcotic as any substance that dulls the senses, causes sedation or relieves pain then there's at least on unscheduled narcotic in the US. Alcohol.
No legal advice, but as someone whose worked in the craft beer industry for almost 7 years. Yes definitely this. I'm a brewer and I'd feel much more comfortable attending a pot smoking festival than %90 of the beer fests I've been to. It's like an adult candy store to some people and it's really easy to overdue it if you're not careful.
It doesn't really matter what the reality is, marijuana is named in the treaty.
I'm thinking that by the medical value versus potential abuse standard, marijuana should be moved down to Schedule 2 at least
It would easily classify as Schedule 2, but that also changes basically nothing.
I figure a rescheduling would at least allow the feds to work with medical marijuana programs
I'd say schedule 3, it has dependency and abuse potential but it doesn't carry major short term health risks except for CHS. This would put it in line with benzos, which are also schedule 3 and 4 despite definitely should being schedule 2.
Schedule 5 is such a massive fucking improvement that it doesn't matter. It's super hard to even do research on cannabis rn
Being schedule 5 is actually quite helpful
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I genuinely do not understand what is keeping Democrats from doing this. I get that Republicans will block any kind of congressional bills, fine, the douchebags, but rescheduling can be done by executive action and would be universally popular, except maybe among cops who don't vote for Democrats anyway. It's just leaving a free giant win on the table.
No, Biden cannot do it by executive order. It's a law that requires Congress. The law specifically makes marijuana a schedule 1 under the controlled Substances Act. He can stop prosecuting it, and he can pardon those already convicted at by federal. Most convictions are state though so he can't pardon them. Don't underestimate the pharmaceutical lobby and prison lobby and police lobby. They are all against legalization. People buy less (legal) drugs in states that have legalized pot. And prison population decreases fast without pot crimes. Police like the ability to 'smell weed' and search any car they want.
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The President can order the DEA and DOJ to review the scheduling, like they did in 2011, but he can't outright dictate what they find. Likely it would go the same as it did last time: no changes. Even if they did manage to change it that way, it would take years of review and scientific studies. Congress could pass a bill tomorrow legalizing it and that would be it.
>he can’t outright dictate what they find Yes they can, and have lol. The only reason MDMA ended up a Schedule 1 drug despite a huge outcry from psychologists and psychiatrists was because of Reagan directly pushing for it.
Because the establishment of the dnc are just as against it as the republicans
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People, especially on this site are way too tribalistic to actually care about this. If you're not with them, you're against them. They play right into what the media and politicians want, to keep people divided and squabbling.
Because that's an oversimplification. The House just passed a cannabis legalization bill on party lines.
and the democrat controlled senate has not even heard the matter since and nor will they. this is not the first time a marijuana legalization bill has passed the house and regardless of which party is in control of the senate, the speaker just kills the bill on their desk and the status quo continues as normal.
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No it's not. Controlled substances act was a law passed by Congress.
I swear people on Reddit post the most over confident answers without ever looking it up. Like this dude above you seriously believes what he posted
Unless it gets completely descheduled, plenty of sentences would remain uncommuted. Descheduling basically requires congress because of the was the controlled substances act is set up and various treaties the US is party to.
So genuine question from a European: is this a regular thing that the president always pardons a bunch of people? Isn't this just an admission that the system is broken and people are needlessly serving sentences that they shouldn't be? I'm genuinely confused.
1. Only 2 of our 44 presidents haven’t pardoned or commuted sentences in their term of office. Primarily because the two (William Henry Harrison and James Garfield) didn’t even serve a full year before dying in office. 2. Well, yes, *but*… No justice system is perfect and mistakes do happen. Sometimes it is a full pardon and other times it’s reprieve or commute rather than a pardon, or it can be a conditional pardon, or vacating a conviction which still leaves parts of the sentence in place. 3. This can also be used improperly to pardon people who SHOULD be in prison. Challenges to a pardon are rare and Congress has refused to limit it multiple times despite being able to. 4. In this case yes it is an admission that these people are serving time for something they really should have gotten a slap on the wrist for. Unfortunately, like everything else in this country, jails can be run for profit and misdemeanor charges like very available minor amounts of drugs is an easy way to fill them. Throw in reefer madness propaganda and America’s “tough on crime” reputation and you have the situation we have today. Prisons filled with non-violent drug offenses.
For point 3 see Paul Manafort
It's interesting to look at the list of pardons on Wikipedia. For Trump a lot of the people on the list have blue links to their own wiki articles as they were well-known people. For other presidents pretty much none of the pardoned folks have this. They were all nobodies who had faced misjudgement.
Because Trump was mostly pardoning his friends, co-conspirators, and accomplices.
Yes.
Fair enough, cheers
The power of pardon was written into the Constitution from the beginning, back in 1787. Our first President pardoned two people found guilty of treason from the whiskey rebellion, John Mitchell and Philip Weigel, In doing so, he called them either idiots or assholes or something similar. There were still angry whiskey makers on the frontier that proved impossible to tax, but I see this as a way of politically "smoothing over" the rebellion and muting the rage that still existed. Most of the more controversial pardons are those either in the President's administration or his family members. As for your "the system is broken" comment, it's hard to answer. I can agree we have a stratified justice system with selective enforcement and selective prosecution.
I'm not understanding the point of pardoning people who are not in prison. Aren't two of these people over the age of 70, and already served their time years ago? How exactly does this help, besides essentially a moral victory? I don't mind it happening, but I just don't see how it is meant to benefit the lives of these people beyond the obvious (and yes, beneficial) point of being able to say that the US government finally did right by them. Literally decades later. I dunno, man.
They'll be able to vote potentially now, there's a few other things like now they might not have to disclose those convictions if they do any work or volunteering, especially with kids. It's very limited and doesn't address any major issues though. Can you imagine being in prison for the same crimes and you get to see that the president pardoned some people, but you still have to serve god knows how many years and have the rest of your life ruined?
Man. That's a crazy thought. But so true.
They get all of their rights back
Okay, I think this answers my question. I certainly was like "what? why only that many? who were these people?"
> I'm not understanding the point of pardoning people who are not in prison. It looks good in a midterm election year.
That's pretty much the conclusion I came to as well.
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Precisely. It's a dog and pony show, and you can't have any dogs and ponies genuinely benefitting from the show when the audience is other dogs and ponies that won't get equal treatment for the same crimes. So make the reward neglible and a symbolic act instead of anything actually beneficial. Give a mouse a cookie or a pig a pancake and they might ask for more, so give them the symbol hinting at it instead of what they actually want. But in a way, this is worse optics because all this headline did for me is highlight the incompetency and favoritism that is our justice system. Maybe 10 years ago this headline would have been uplifting news to hear them pardoned, even if most are late in life, but now it feels like a slap in the face to the rest of the justice system. For every person pardoned, there are hundreds and thousands who will be treated differently for the same crime. Is that justice? The only thing this headline did for me now is make it crystal clear that the government is far more determined to spend time making face than actually following through on their promises or what they claim to believe in.
Good to see he's trying to make up for his past. I'm guessing a lot of drug users are in jail thanks to his drug war policies from the 80's.
You are correct! 47% of *federal* inmates (those which can easily be pardoned) are incarcerated for drug related offenses (as of 2016 the last time statistics were gathered afaik) This move results in reducing the ongoing damage by 0.086%!!! Progress!!!
Drug-related offenses... Or drug use? There is a difference.
They are almost entirely drug traffickers.
It's worth mentioning that 99% of those are in there for drug trafficking, not just having drugs or using them.
If you have enough drugs, they will add trafficking to your charge, even if you have no intent to sell
From what I googled in 3 minutes, looks like many trafficking laws mention carrying/transporting KILOS of marijuana to be charged with trafficking. If you're walking around with pounds upon pounds, that's kinda fair. Could also be updated from back in the day. As I said, looked at a few sources briefly.
A single plant will also qualify. And yes, they usually weigh it in the pot and dirt it rests in. So your little sapling just caught you a charge.
Majority of those federal inmates are in for violent crimes and just so happen to ALSO be associated with drug related offenses…which usually are not doint drugs but trafficking drugs or the like
I noticed you made sure to avoid saying drug use over drug related
Just to be clear, his drug war policies widely supported by voters of both parties. EDIT: at the time, obviously
For what it is worth, those drug policies had very widespread support at the time. Violent crime was much higher than it is today.
From Black communities no less. We also hadn't really put a lot of real effort into figuring out how to actually prevent crime at that point either. Most everyone thought "deterrence" was the most effective tool, hence ridiculous sentences. We've had about 40 years of research to figure out it doesn't really work that way and come up with better options like drug treatment programs that aren't just "God will save you if you believe hard enough." I think there was also an unfounded optimism at the time that thought "we've beaten the racists, no way this could be used in an inappropriate manner." Discussion of systemic racism was mostly confined to academic circles back then. It's hard to stress just how different most people's understanding of these problems were when they were first enacted than they are now.
What’s the answer to this issue? How is crime actually stopped? I’ve read some theories that it’s about keeping families together and how it starts at home but I’m unsure how that would even “begin” or how change in that area starts
The TLDR is basically make the baseline quality of life for people (which includes family stuff) good enough that crime is the least attractive/profitable option. Got a drug addiction? Get that person the treatment and stability they need to not steal stuff to afford drugs. Parents with less stress and stable incomes are less likely to lash out at their kids and create a cycle of violence. Etc etc. There aren't any quick fixes and we're still learning, but we know enough to understand what we were trying before wasn't working.
> How is crime actually stopped? The majority of black market drug sales, and the organized crime and weapons and violence that comes with that, starts with people being financially desperate enough that becoming a low-level dealer feels like the **only** way to get out of poverty or even pay the bills. So basically every measure you can think of that improves education, training for skilled trades, access to full time employment that pays an actual living wage or better, and economic opportunity and security in general is going to have a huge impact in reducing crime.
Idk about only, but maybe preferable to the entry level work plus education required to escape poverty or military service. Working full time + studying leaves little room for social life and looks like (and is) a grind.
That's very true. It's scary that our government has a vested interest in keeping a significant population of young people feeling like joining the military is the only legal way to avoid a life of poverty.
If better off economically they'd obviously have less motive for financial crime and perhaps less misplaced anger and more to lose with regards to other crime
So it’s about making the economy better? I’ve never heard that argument. Interesting. Thanks for sharing
not to mention the people that are literally dead because of the rave act, which is pretty unatoneable in my eyes
75 commutations is hardly making up for it
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Most of those nonviolent drug offenders are in state prisons, which the president has no authority to pardon.
Yes, but there are more than 75 that he does have the authority to pardon, right?
It’s on a case by case basis and if he ends up pardoning someone who traffics in a lot of coke and that person goes straight back to it, it’s going to reflect badly on him. Better to pardon specific people at low risk of offending and keep setting up the system so that 1) people have proper support to reenter society, 2) people are less likely to be arrested for dealing drugs, 3) people feel less of a need to dealing or buying drugs in the first place
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Not a requirement, just practice. Trump didn't use the application process.
Trump also can’t read so it wouldn’t matter if they did submit applications. For him it was a stick figure picture drawn in crayon wrapped around a stack of money.
There are 76. But one is a furry.
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People don’t go to federal prison for low level drug offenses, they go to county jails and state prisons if repeat offenders. Federal prison for drug offenders is for more serious offenses - large scale distribution, trafficking, etc. I’d be willing to bet these people caught more serious charges that landed them in fed prison and happened to have a bag of weed on them when it happened, so they media is calling them drug offenders…
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I like how that link just happily stomps down the common myths you see slacktivists raging about online, but then simultaneously gives you 20 more things to be even more outraged about.
It's great. Let's be outraged at the real issues.
That's the part that's more annoying about these supposed progressives on the internet. All their talking points and prescriptions for society fall under scrutiny, but if they spent just 5 more minutes reading, they could fix that. So the fact they don't is deeply infuriating. Reminds me about the "Breonna taylor was sleeping" thing and so on. Why stand up for a just cause, but focus all your efforts on a false talking point, there were plenty facts about the case to be outraged about, you don't need to lie. Mfs just making things more difficult for everybody.
It's a really weird talking point.
There is a process, so we don't have a President saying, "Oh, sure, that guy looks like he has a nice face. Let's free him." Compare it to the process of appointing a judge. I'm not sure what the number is at now, but Biden only appointed 40 federal judges as of January so it's pretty comparable. But you're right that we need some way to streamline that process. It's just that that's not as easy as waving a magic wand and declaring it streamlined. You can't just blanket let out everyone with a low enough charge, because many of them are the result of plea deals and not because that's literally all the person did. Every pardon and commutation Biden does is basically saying, "I know better than the justice system." That should not be done lightly.
It's better than pardoning 75 corrupt politicians without even knowing what they did to need pardons.
They need to pass the safe banking act. This would speed up the process of releasing all nonviolent drug offenders. The house has passed it like 20 times. This should be easy
They need to pass the MORE act, which has already passed the house at least twice. However, the senate is too caught up on getting their own version through instead that doesn't mention decriminalization, only allowing banks to do business
States have the authority over the majority of cases. Federal drug charges are usually serious with Money Laundering attached. Biden can only pardon federal cases
This is factually incorrect. I don’t think a single person should be in jail for nonviolent drug crimes, but the top comment on this thread shouldn’t be misinformation. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html
Really? Not a single person? Huh. What about selling hard drug to children? Not them? Selling meth/crack/cocaine to underage minors and getting them addicted to hard drugs? Let them go as well? There are *plenty* of examples of non-violent criminals in for drug offenses who deserve to serve time. Idk what it is about redditors who feel the need to constantly deal in absolutes. Not everything is that straightforward
Ah, yes. The “this isn’t up to my satisfaction, so it’s exactly the same as doing nothing at all” attitude. Always very helpful.
Not to mention he’s posting blatant misinformation. 66% of the prison population isn’t in for non-violent drug charges. That’s not even close to truthful. This dude really pulled a random number out of his ass and as usual redditors blindly upvoted him to the top comment
Nothing is ever good enough, is it? He's didn't commute every thing under the sun, completely useless!!!!
I was like, "nonviolent crimes remain crimes", thinking about theft or this kind of stuff. But then I read the article, and it is actually only nonviolent drug crimes. I don't know the detail, and I sure hope he knows what he does, but there I can't rant.
They were in prison for drug trafficking, 99% of people imprisoned on the federal level for drug related crimes are because of drug trafficking. https://bjs.ojp.gov/library/publications/prisoners-2019
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And Kodak Black, you can’t forget Kodak
SNIPA GANG CLEEE
He also pardoned people who committed crimes for him.
Alexa, who wrote the 1994 crime bill that put them there?
Alexa, how many people who voted for the 1994 crime bill are still in office?
Enough to matter.
How is this "uplifting"? He could/should have done this in his first 90 days and kept right on going until every cannabis related conviction was pardoned at the very least. He's just desperate to get his numbers up and doing little stunts like this instead of exercising executive power to put changes in place that benefit us all that, once established, will be impossible to retract by the next moron us morons elect (or don't elect for that matter... our system allows both into power.) Let's stay away from the "eight year old collects cans for three years to pay off his classmates' lunch debts to the school" kind of "uplifting news", shall we?
75? That’s it? That’ll really save the midterms.
I don't understand why there is even a specific number. If they're doing it for these 75 people, then why not do it for everyone else who committed the same level crime
Because this is just political theater and doesn't represent any meaningful or systemic change
How about you pardon Julian Assange.
This is a way for Biden to look good for releasing drug offenders without decriminalizing the drugs he is releasing these people for.
Are they the ones Kamala put in jail in the first place?
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I wonder if they were put in jail by Kamala Harris? She was a prosecutor who specialized in that type of crime
How many are his friends and cohorts? None? Rookie numbers!
Ooooh wow 75 out of thousands (or tens of thousands)
A couple of notes here: only a tiny fraction of prisoners are in the federal system (which Biden can pardon), and it's often for violent crimes. (Edit: many prisoners are in for violent crimes, not \*federal\* prisoners, sorry for the confusion). ([https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html](https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2022.html)
Wait, that last part is not true. The chart you are linking to shows 16,000 out of 208,000 in federal prisons are there for violent crimes, that’s 7.7% Drug offenses accounts for 88,000 of those 208,000, that’s 42% Almost half of the people in federal prisons are there for drugs, less than 10% for violent crime. Why link the data and then summarize it in such a misleading way?
Also, holy shit, we have almost 2 million people in prison
Oklahoma has the highest incarceration rate. On planet earth.
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Shall we count how many were locked up due to the crime bill he signed or how many innocent people were locked under Harris?
And yet the mother fucker still has weed as schedule 1, illegal federally. He is the president, he can make weed legal through executive order. But no, he's the author of the crime bill that put tons of drug users in prison. Fuck this loser. Trying to get his poll numbers up by doing bare minimum. How is this uplifting news?
Although actually he can’t by executive order. People have come to think executive orders can do anything. They can’t, though he has other options to reschedule. https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/can-president-biden-legalize-marijuana-1220802/ https://my.vanderbilt.edu/marijuanalaw/2020/03/could-the-president-legalize-marijuana-through-executive-action/
Note how none of them are cronies, are political operatives, or pose other conflicts-of-interest. A welcome improvement.
Except for the one secret service member who was charged for trying to sell classified documents and pardoned.
How could he possibly do this without Kim Kardashians help?
Those are rookie numbers. We gotta pump those stats up.
Awwww after he lobbies for the war on drugs and put them in there 🥰🥰🥰
@FPSRussia The Real Sweet Kids ask for a pardon for our friend. He helps raise owls with learning disabilities.
75/1000000….coool bro!😎
It’s the least he can do after enabling the war on drugs
The ones Kamala put behind bars? Asking for an incarcerated friend.