Biden Says No Pardon For Weed Sellers, Delaware Wants Cannabis Legal, Court Rules Pot Equipment Can Be Imported

Biden Won't Pardon Those Imprisoned For Selling Weed

President Joe Biden kicked off October by announcing that he would pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession.

He recently reiterated his stance on cannabis possession but highlighted that those convicted for selling cannabis would not be granted a pardon, reported Marijuana Moment.

"You can't sell it," Biden added. "But if it's just use, you're completely free."

He said that he would keep his promise that "no one should be in jail for merely using or possessing marijuana," adding that the "records, which hold up people from being able to get jobs and the like, should be totally expunged."

The latest comments came ahead of Sunday's White House protest organized by  such groups as Students for Sensible Drug Policy, Last Prisoner Project, DCMJ, which said earlier that Biden's move was "a great first step." However, it did nothing to help the thousands of incarcerated federal pot prisoners.

"We would prefer not to have to escalate our protests, however, your administration has thus far refused to release our incarcerated neighbors, friends, and family members and it is, therefore our moral duty to mobilize sufficient public attention to your lack of action on this urgent injustice that you promised to address," the activists' letter sent to Biden earlier this month said.

Majority Of Delaware Residents Want Recreational Cannabis Legalized

A new survey from the University of Delaware Center for Political Communication 

showed that 60% of registered voters said marijuana use "should be legal," while only a third of those asked are against it. Roughly 10% were undecided.

Out of those supporting the legalization, Democrats accounted for 73%, while some 40% of GOP voters think the same.

"Two-thirds of Delawareans say they support the legalization of marijuana," Phil Jones, the university center's research director, told Delaware Public Media. "That's without restrictions, so not just medical marijuana or for specific cases. This is just legalizing it in full, and so the gubernatorial candidates have an issue here that they can pick up on."

Court Green-Lights Import-Export Of Cannabis Equipment Into Legal States, Again

Earlier this month, the U.S. Court of International Trade (CIT) ruled that the import or export of drug paraphernalia to or from states where cannabis is legal represents an exception to the federal ban imposed by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA).

Eteros Technologies USA, a global leader in hemp and marijuana agriculture processing equipment, filed suit after the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) blocked equipment import from Canada in 2021. CBP had deemed the prohibited parts were  "drug paraphernalia," citing the CSA. Then, CIT Judge Gary S. Katzmann ruled in favor of Eteros.

In a ruling last week, the court came to the same decision and allowed Keirton to import equipment for its "Twisted Trimmers" product which helps separate leaves from cannabis plants in the state-legal market, reported Marijuana Moment.

CSA's "overarching purpose is to create a uniform Federal prohibition and that allowing the exemption to extend to Washington State's repeal would undermine the uniformity Congress intended," the defendants said in the filing.

"However, Congress did not impose complete uniformity," the court said. "It provided an exemption. Had it wanted to limit that exemption, it could have done so."

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