President Biden Pardons, Commutes 16 Non-Violent Drug Offenders: Cannabis Prisoners Excluded

President Joe Biden pardoned 11 people convicted of non-violent drug charges and commuted the sentences of five others. He said the move was part of his commitment to addressing racial disparities as many of them received disproportionately longer sentences than they would have under current law.

"America is a nation founded on the promise of second chances," Biden said Wednesday in a statement announcing the decision. "We also recommit to building a criminal justice system that lives up to those ideals and ensures that everyone receives equal justice under law."

Cannabis Prisoners Need Not Apply

Among the 16 recipients of Biden's clemency actions, none were non-violent cannabis prisoners. Despite the president's promise, repeated on countless occasions including in his April SOTU speech that no one should be in prison for possessing marijuana, thousands of those very people remain behind bars.

Biden's initial October 2022 pardon of some 6,500 federal cannabis prisoners made waves but little came of it afterwards.

Based on Bureau of Justice statistics the Last Prisoner Project (LPP) — a nonprofit dedicated to the release of individuals incarcerated for cannabis offenses — estimates that there are approximately 22,000 pot prisoners serving time in state correctional facilities and around 10,000 in federal prisons. Biden, who can only pardon those in federal prisons, has called on call to state governors to do the honors.

In Wednesday’s pardon, Biden reiterated that April was "Second Chance Month," which he and VP Kamala Harris kicked off recently by calling attention to the administration's cannabis pardons, signaling that marijuana is becoming an important issue as a tight presidential election race looms.

Too Little, Too Late?

The Last Prisoner Project seems to think that. In a recent letter to Biden, the organization called for the release of people incarcerated for non-violent cannabis offenses, saying the president could free them "with a simple stroke of a pen."

The letter underscores what the LPP calls the hypocrisy and injustice of the country’s failed approach to cannabis law enforcement and reform.

“While some (disproportionately Black, brown, and/or low-income) citizens are being criminalized, others (disproportionately white, wealthy, and well-connected) citizens are earning millions of dollars running state-regulated cannabis companies," wrote the LPP.

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