Politics
Biden Campaign Says Trump ‘Took Marijuana Reform Backwards’ By Rescinding Enforcement Memo, Despite Current Admin Failing To Reinstate It
The Biden reelection campaign says the Trump administration “took marijuana reform backwards” by rescinding Justice Department guidance that promoted discretion in federal cannabis prosecutions.
In an email distributed on Thursday, the Biden-Harris campaign touted the vice president’s White House roundtable with recent pardon recipients who received clemency for drug-related convictions and contrasted various criminal justice reform initiatives with the record of former President Donald Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election.
Vice President Kamala Harris’s event—where she again touted President Joe Biden’s mass cannabis pardons—comes in “stark contrast with the Trump administration’s failures on criminal justice reform,” the Democratic ticket’s campaign email said, listing various policy actions from the former president.
“Trump and his administration took marijuana reform backwards, withdrawing guidelines to limit prosecutions of marijuana offenses that were legal under state laws,” the email says.
That’s a reference to former Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s move to rescind Obama-era guidance known as the Cole memo that laid out federal cannabis enforcement priorities, generally formalizing a policy of non-intervention for state-legal marijuana activity.
The practical impact of the decision was limited, as states have continued to operate legal marketplaces and approve additional legalization laws largely without federal interference. But the move was symbolically significant, raising concerns about a potential federal crackdown that never ultimately materialized.
While the Biden campaign email criticized the prior administration’s action, however, it omitted the fact that any cannabis guidance has yet to be reissued under the current administration—despite Attorney General Merrick Garland saying in June 2022 that DOJ would be addressing the issue “in the days ahead.”
When Garland was asked about the issue during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last March, he said that it was “fair to expect” that the updated marijuana policy would be “very close to what was done in the Cole Memorandum.”
Two Democratic congressional lawmakers said in a letter to Garland late last month that it is “unacceptable” that the Justice Department has yet to reissue the federal marijuana enforcement guidance to discourage interference in state cannabis programs, leaving Americans in a “legal limbo” despite promises to update the policy.
In any case, the Biden campaign’s choice to draw the cannabis contrast is notable, representing one of the latest examples of how the president is aiming to leverage the popularity of marijuana reform ahead of the November election.
“On criminal justice, the contrast couldn’t be clearer: while Trump talks about pardoning January 6th rioters and celebrating violence, Vice President Harris and President Biden are giving a second chance to people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses,” Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer said in Thursday’s email.
Meanwhile, on the cannabis holiday 4/20 last Saturday, both Biden and Harris promoted marijuana policy reform in social media posts at exactly 4:20pm ET.
The president also discussed the cannabis actions in a historic context last month, during his State of the Union address.
Earlier this month, Biden, Harris and a top Justice Department official all marked “Second Chance Month” by separately touting the administration’s mass marijuana pardons—another acknowledgement from the White House that cannabis reform is a focus heading into the November election.
Read the full Biden campaign email below:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 25, 2024
Vice President Harris Highlights Biden Administration Pardons, Criminal Justice Contrast With Trump Failures
Today at the White House, Vice President Harris hosted Kim Kardashian and others to hold a roundtable discussion on criminal justice reform. It comes after last month’s White House discussion on marijuana reform, led by Vice President Harris.
At the event, 4 of the 16 recipients of President Biden’s latest pardons and commutations attended. These individuals were convicted of nonviolent drug offenses and many received longer sentences than they would have under current law and practice.
This is in stark contrast with the Trump administration’s failures on criminal justice reform:
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- Crime: Under Trump, America was less safe. Violent crime rose and murder increased 29.4% in 2020.
- Commutations and Pardons: Trump granted fewer commutations and pardons than nearly any modern president – and many of the crony grants he did give went to well-connected offenders and “an orgy of pardons for politically connected business moguls, real estate barons and disgraced former members of Congress.” Trump himself openly acknowledged mega-donors made his pardon decisions.
- Sentencing Reform: Trump’s own administration blocked implementation of sentencing reform he brags about. His Department of Justice sought to reincarcerate an inmate Trump touted at the White House for the bill signing. And under Trump, the Department of Justice ordered prosecutors to unnecessarily charge offenses with mandatory minimums and sought to undo justice reform.
- Marijuana: Trump and his administration took marijuana reform backwards, withdrawing guidelines to limit prosecutions of marijuana offenses that were legal under state laws.
- Policing: Trump has said he would instruct police officers to shoot shoplifters. As president, he inflamed tensions between the police and the communities they serve. He insisted police departments use “stop and frisk” and sought to block local police reform. His administration also reduced oversight of police departments and repeatedly proposed cutting funding for local police departments and combating illicit drug flows.
- Trump’s Project 2025 agenda: Pardon violent January 6th rioters while worsening racial inequity in the justice system, prosecute his political opponents, and criminalize abortion.
The following is a statement from Biden-Harris campaign spokesperson James Singer:
“On criminal justice, the contrast couldn’t be clearer: while Trump talks about pardoning January 6th rioters and celebrating violence, Vice President Harris and President Biden are giving a second chance to people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses.”
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