Lets Get Stoned: the Impact of President Biden’s Drug Policy reform

When you think of “feminist policy issues” the first things that come to mind may be issues like abortion rights, pay equality, equality in the workplace, and other woman-centered issues. However, on this blog we practice intersectional feminism and are concerned with legislation that advances equality for everyone. Earlier this week President Biden released a statement outlining his goals for Marijuana Legislation Reform, an issue that he has been promising to address since the early days of his campaign.

Before we look into the specifics of what Biden has promised, we must first take a look at Joe Biden’s career as a politician, and other legislation he has passed that is relevant to Marijuana Reform. Joe Biden was a U.S. Senator from the state of Delaware for almost forty years, and was well known for his “tough on crime” position, which was unusual for a Democrat at the time. He is responsible for advancing federal funding for the War on Drugs, and spearheaded the majority of policy that placed people in prison for non-violent drug crimes in the eighties. Famously he co-sponsored the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act which placed a mandatory minimum sentence on non-violent drug related crimes, and created the disparity in punishment between crack and cocaine. This policy disproportionately affected black men, placing thousands in federal prisons at an extremely accelerated rate. His most infamous piece of legislation from the War on Drugs is his 1994 Crime Bill which dramatically increased police presence as well as expanded their authority, and can also be directly tied to the explosion in the black population of federal prisons since it passed. President Biden has since apologized for the role he played in advancing the War on Drugs, and worked closely with former President Barack Obama to pass the 2010 Fair Sentencing Act, which aimed to decrease the disparity in sentencing between crack cocaine and powdered cocaine. 

It appears as if this most recent push to reform marijuana policy is an effort to repair the extensive damage Biden caused during the War on Drugs. In the statement Biden released, he outlined three specific steps he plans to take. This first being a mass pardon of individuals in federal prison for “simple marijuana possession”. There is one problem with this, according to a Rolling Stone article on this issue, “activists have pointed out that the number of those affected by the federal pardons, which will only apply to those convicted of ‘simple marijuana possession,’ will be relatively low — about 6,500 people, none of whom are currently physically incarcerated.” While this “mass pardon” seems impressive, it is not actually doing much.

Secondly, President Biden “strongly urges” state Governors to follow in his lead, and pardon individuals in state and local prisons for simple marijuana possession. This would be more effective than his federal pardon, but there is not much he can do to force Governors to actually follow through. Lastly, Biden has asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services to “expeditiously review” the way marijuana is classified under federal law. Currently, marijuana is a Schedule 1 drug which classifies it as the most illicit kind of substance, alongside heroin and LSD. Marijuana is classified as more dangerous than fentanyl, the main cause of the opioid epidemic. This reclassification is possibly the most important part of everything Biden has announced, because it will modify a large amount of laws that put people in prison. The President has so much more to do to repair the damage and trauma he caused to the black community during the War on Drugs, and he should be held responsible for keeping the campaign promises he made to reverse the War on Drugs. 

This is just a quick reminder that equality under the law is cool, and nobody should be incarcerated for marijuana on a federal, state, or local level.