Joe Biden Announces Support for Cannabis Decriminalization

Now that he is running for President, Former Vice President Joe Biden has stated that he supports decriminalizing the use and possession of Cannabis. Also, as a part of his campaign, he stated that he believes that the issues of possible legalization of it should be made by the various states instead of the Federal Government.

Vice President Biden's main stance with regard to Cannabis is that he does not think that anyone should be in jail for smoking or possessing it. He apparently also supports automatically expunging criminal records for Cannabis possession that are from the past, so that anyone previously prosecuted for possession will not have to defend themselves or hire an attorney to do so.

He also has stated that if elected, he would change Cannabis from a Schedule I drug, as it is now, to a Schedule II drug. This reclassification would be important to allow more research involving Cannabis.

With this new scheduling, the current Drug Enforcement Administration definition of Cannabis as a Schedule I drug, "with no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse" would change to show that Cannabis may have an accepted medical use as defined by the government. Other Schedule II drugs are cocaine, methamphetamine and fentanyl, and these drugs are also considered by the federal government to have a high potential for abuse but allow for more opportunities for research than with Schedule I drugs.

Biden's new policy on the campaign trail is different than his previous statements about Cannabis. During his Senate career, which was more than three decades, Biden both opposed Cannabis legalization and often supported measures to reduce drug use and crimes often linked to drug use. Now, many other Democrats have stated that they feel that some of his policies while in the Senate have ultimately contributed to mass incarcerations for drug crimes.

Now that the Democratic presidential campaigns of many hopefuls have started, many of these other candidates have now expressed support for legalizing marijuana at the federal level. These other candidates include Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). Also, at this point, ten states and the District of Columbia have legalized the use of recreational Cannabis and 33 states have approved Cannabis for medical use.

RG StaffMay 28, 2019