Don't Get Distracted Over Biden's "Pardon"
Biden's Marijuana possession pardons have some partisans all worked up. There are other hills to die on.
I get the temptation to criticize every action and utterance by President Biden. It’s a target-rich environment. After all, he’s botched so much, from the Afghanistan debacle in 2021 to hosing the economy with deficit spending and ending America’s energy independence. And that’s just for starters.
Biden’s blanket pardon of about 6,500 people convicted of “simple marijuana possession” under federal law over the past 30 years is not one I’m tempted to criticize. As the New York Post reported:
Nineteen states, DC and two US territories have passed laws since 2012 allowing recreational marijuana use — in defiance of federal law, which still deems possession of the drug for any reason outside limited research a crime.
“He is following through on his campaign commitment,” a senior administration official told reporters moments before Biden tweeted about his actions.
“The president is calling on governors to take action as well. This is important as the vast majority of marijuana possession convictions are state convictions,” an official said.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m no “libertarian” or fan of this stuff. I have lost contact with friends who’ve been paid big bucks to lead recreational weed legalization campaigns in New Jersey (successful) and Pennsylvania (not yet). I’ve never smoked or consumed the stuff and never intend to. And I share the alarm sounded by organizations such as Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and others about the dangers of marijuana consumption. I’ve previously posted annual reports from the Rocky Mountain High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (RMHIDT) about disturbing public health and safety trends since Colorado was the first in the nation to legalize recreational use a decade ago. Eighteen states have followed suit with legal weed for recreational purposes.
Some Democratic candidates have made it their cause celebre, including Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov., John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for US Senate from the Keystone State this year. That is, when he’s not advocating for releasing violent criminals from jail. Pennsylvania voters concerned with inflation, the economy, rising violent crime rates, and parental involvement in education should know that those issues will take a back seat to Fetterman’s love affair with legal weed (and opening prison doors) if he is elected.
Biden’s pardon is limited in scope. It doesn’t include convicted traffickers. It doesn’t include convictions of marijuana possession by illegal aliens. It doesn’t actually “free” people from jails since those with only simple possession convictions rarely, if ever, serve jail time. And if then, only days.
The marijuana legalization horse is clearly out of the barn. Of more concern to me is not Biden’s pardon but other actions he called for:
I am asking the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Federal law currently classifies marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the classification meant for the most dangerous substances. This is the same schedule as for heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine – the drugs that are driving our overdose epidemic.
Finally, even as federal and state regulation of marijuana changes, important limitations on trafficking, marketing, and under-age sales should stay in place.
If there’s one thing that Covid-inspired lockdowns have taught us, we have a growing mental health crisis in America. Since the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest" appeared nearly 50 years ago, over 90 percent of America’s mental hospitals have closed. The evidence is clear: heavy marijuana use exacerbates this, especially among younger adults and teenagers. And don’t think that the pot industry isn't after your kids. From SAM:
As commercialization increases in legalized states, false advertising of marijuana products as being “natural” and “healthier than alcohol and tobacco” have greatly decreased the perceived risk of harm related to marijuana use. The main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, THC, has now been observed to cause many different types of mental and physiological health problems— especially in children and youth.
Marijuana use directly affects the brain — specifically the parts of the brain responsible for memory, learning, attention and reaction time. These effects can last up to 28 days after abstinence from use.
Science confirms that the adolescent brain — particularly the part of the brain that regulates planning for complex cognitive behavior, personality expression, decision making and social behavior — is not fully developed until the early to mid-20s. Developing brains are especially susceptible to all of the negative effects of marijuana and other drug use.
A recent study published in the Lancet journal states there is very little “evidence to suggest that cannabinoids improve depressive disorders and symptoms, anxiety disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder, or psychosis.”
One argument used by advocates is that marijuana legalization is a treasure trove of fresh cash for state governments. Receipts from marijuana taxation account for less than one percent of Colorado’s budget. So much for that, never mind the societal costs of increased traffic death, hospitalization, and mental health issues. I’d like to see that added up.
And don’t bother with the stupid arguments comparing alcohol and marijuana. The effects of alcohol consumption wear off after hours. The effects of marijuana consumption wear off after days. If you’re a warehouse manager of forklift operators, you know.
Alex Berenson, before he became famous (or, infamous) over his Covid investigative reporting, authored “Tell Your Children,” a disturbing book about the impact of heavy marijuana consumption on psychosis. From a speech he gave at Hillsdale University in January 2019:
For centuries, people worldwide have understood that cannabis causes mental illness and violence—just as they’ve known that opiates cause addiction and overdose. Hard data on the relationship between marijuana and madness dates back 150 years, to British asylum registers in India. Yet 20 years ago, the United States moved to encourage wider use of cannabis and opiates.
In both cases, we decided we could outsmart these drugs—that we could have their benefits without their costs. And in both cases we were wrong. Opiates are riskier, and the overdose deaths they cause a more imminent crisis, so we have focused on those. But soon enough the mental illness and violence that follow cannabis use will also be too widespread to ignore.
Whether to use cannabis, or any drug, is a personal decision. Whether cannabis should be legal is a political issue. But its precise legal status is far less important than making sure that anyone who uses it is aware of its risks. Most cigarette smokers don’t die of lung cancer. But we have made it widely known that cigarettes cause cancer, full stop. Most people who drink and drive don’t have fatal accidents. But we have highlighted the cases of those who do.
We need equally unambiguous and well-funded advertising campaigns on the risks of cannabis. Instead, we are now in the worst of all worlds. Marijuana is legal in some states, illegal in others, dangerously potent, and sold without warnings everywhere.
We have warnings on cigarette packages and even wine bottles. But not marijuana.
Some may be tempted to compare this to President Jimmy Carter’s “Day One” pardon on January 21, 1977, to an estimated 100,000 Vietnam War-era draft dodgers who escaped to Canada and other places to avoid service. Only half returned. That rankled those who did serve, and especially family members of those who served were disabled or died from serving. Their anger wasn't just palpable but understandable. But Biden’s pardon bears little if any resemblance.
We should discourage marijuana consumption, especially legalization, for recreational purposes. We should target pushers and distributors for special punishment. But punishing consumers of small amounts is not a wise use of resources, political or otherwise. Don’t be distracted. We have other fish to fry, including stopping the spread of recreational weed legalization to the other 31 states whose legislators and governors haven’t been bought by the weed industry. Yet.