convictions and regulations is this administration's most significant
action to date on drug reform. White House correspondent Laura Baron
Lopez has more
President Biden laid out three steps today to end what he calls a
failed approach on marijuana. He announced that pardons for past
federal and District of Columbia convictions for marijuana possession
call for governors to take the same action for state convictions.
And he directed federal agencies to review whether marijuana should
still be classified as one of the most dangerous drugs under federal
law.
Here with me now is Mark Osler. He is a law professor at the University
of ST Thomas School in Minneapolis and a former federal prosecutor,
Mark Thanks for joining us so out out of this announcement, What
is the piece of it that could potentially have the biggest impact?
Probably the talk about rescheduling marijuana. The pardon is probably
going to impact. A relatively small number of people, most of whom
had misdemeanors is their crime of conviction in the broader scope
of things re conceiving exactly how dangerous marijuana is and how
the feds approach. It is the bigger story.
And so if the administration actually moves forward with the scheduling
marijuana, what immediate practical change would occur? And what
kind of timeline would we see?
Well, it's gonna change the ability of federal authorities. For example,
at the border where a lot of these cases come from prosecuting people
simply for that it's going to also send a message. The states as
well. We will no longer have as much of a conflict between federal
and state law on marijuana, especially in those states, where marijuana
has been legalized for recreational use.
And the scheduling is effectively the same as decriminalization.
Correct.
Yes, You know, there's other ways that marijuana is embedded in federal
law and in the penal code, so there's gonna be some cleaning up to
do beyond simply de scheduling. But yes, that's a big part of it
were very close to the midterm elections. You've talked to the White
House and other officials within the administration. Why do you think
they decided on this now?
It may have had political considerations taken into account, but
it could be just that it took a while to get to the point where they're
ready to pull the trigger on this, that there is a lot of people
who have to check off on this kind of a decision, particularly within
the Department of Justice.
Where they're pretty loath to give up control over anything. And
so even the consideration of the scheduling of marijuana and such
a relatively broad pardon is something that took a while to get everybody
in line to say yes to that. Part of that decision on D scheduling
is also going to include the health and human services secretary
Is that a normal step?
As far as you know.
Well, I think they're having broad consultation amongst the people
whom it will affect and the scheduling of any narcotic does affect
health services. Obviously right now, in schedule one marijuana is
what schedule One means is that it has no medical use no legitimate
medical use now. Obviously, the majority of the states disagree with
that, where some medical use is allowed.
And so in terms of using marijuana in a way that's consistent and
the way that the government approaches that health and human services
would have to be involved, and they want to get buy in from them.
The other part of this announcement is that it will impact more than
6500 individuals convicted between 1992 and 2001. So what is the
reality for those 6500 people who were previously convicted?
It's going to affect their criminal record that they've got a misdemeanor
on their record. We're not talking about, you know, thousands of
people walking out of prison. That's that's not what this is going
to create.
But instead it's going to be you know, thousands of people who have
lived with a misdemeanor on the record that they have to report periodically,
and that's going to be gone. Is that going to change the landscape
of the war on drugs? Probably not. But it will mean something to
those people who get that benefit. That brings me to another issue
with under marijuana convictions and potentially commutations. In
April, President Biden commuted the sentences of
25 non violent drug offenders. Only nine of those within the total
commutations and pardons were for marijuana offenses, so there are
roughly
2700 non violent marijuana offenders in federal prison. Is that something
that you think the administration could potentially move on either
later this year or early next year.
Yes, I think so. And that's the obvious. Next step is that right
now, those are people that would have been convicted of trafficking
offenses. Now, of course, a lot of times when people were convicted
of trafficking offenses, they were doing things that are legal. Now,
for example, you know, there's one man, Lance Gloria, He was running
a legal marijuana dispensary in the state of Washington. And so yes,
that is that is the logical next step to approach and we're hoping
that the administration will take that step.
So what do you say to people who would argue that commuting the sentences
of those offenders who potentially celled huge quantities of marijuana
is not the right path to take?
Well, Certainly there's other things that go with that kind of narcotic
trafficking. And if you have a situation where there was violence
associated with it, we can expect that there will be treated differently.
But for the most part, when we look at these cases is people who
are doing things that are right now being done by companies across
the country very quickly. Mark if I could ask you, you've told me
before that you think the administration's path on this has been
somewhat cautious. How does it stand up to prior presidents?
Well, let's compare to this. The last real broad, categorical pardon
that we can compare this to is Jimmy Carter's broad amnesty they
gave to draft evaders. Um, and that was much bolder because it granted
much greater relief He did on the very first day he was in office,
and it cut its something that was still controversial American society
the way that marijuana possession and seconds
So, um, it's still not going bold, but we can hope that they'll be
something that's concerned in the future.
Mark Osler. Thank you so much for your time.