The president of the United States, Joe Biden, announced this Thursday that he pardons all people convicted of minor federal crimes for possession of marijuana.
The measure, loaded with great symbolism, paves the way for the total legalization of cannabis in the country, which is already legal in many States: 37 have approved it for medical use, and among them, in 16 its recreational use is also authorized in adults.
The pardons affect some 6,500 people convicted under federal law between 1992 and 2021 and thousands of others in the District of Columbia, according to authorities.
“As I have often said during my presidential campaign, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in a White House statement.
“Sending people to prison for that has affected the lives of too many people, sending people to jail for behavior that many states no longer prohibit.
Criminal records for possession of marijuana have also imposed unnecessary barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities.”
The president also denounces in the text that this affects whites much less.
He has asked the attorney general, Merrick Garland, to get down to it, and the governors of the different states "to do the same with respect to state crimes", because what works for a federal prison, works for "local jails". or state”, assured the president.
"Third, I request the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate the administrative process to review the consideration of marijuana under federal law," the statement continues.
Currently, the substance is in the category of "the most dangerous", next to heroin or LSD, and even in a higher consideration than fentanyl and methamphetamine, drugs that are causing a true epidemic of overdose in the United States. .
“Even as federal and state regulation of marijuana changes,” Biden's statement continues, “important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and sales to minors must remain.
Too many lives have been changed because of our failed approach to marijuana.
It is time we correct these mistakes.”
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