Politics
Democratic Party Touts Biden Marijuana Reform Actions, But Declines To Endorse Decriminalization, In 2024 Platform
The Democratic National Committee (DNC) is touting President Joe Biden’s marijuana pardons and rescheduling moves, while calling for broader reform to expunge prior records. However, unlike in 2020, the party’s latest draft platform that was approved by a party committee on Tuesday doesn’t promote broader cannabis decriminalization.
The party is also blasting former President Donald Trump, the newly named Republican presidential nominee, over his prior administration’s anti-cannabis actions.
As the November election approach, DNC is taking a note from the president, describing the cannabis pardons he’s issued as one of the “historic steps” Biden has taken to promote criminal justice reform in his first term. “No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” it says, echoing the president’s increasingly common refrain.
“Sending people to prison for possession has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit,” it says. “Those criminal records impose needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities, disproportionately affecting Black and brown people.”
“No one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. Sending people to prison for possession has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit. Those criminal records impose needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities, disproportionately affecting Black and brown people. President Biden took historic action to end this failed approach by pardoning people convicted federally for using or possessing marijuana. He has called on governors to use their pardon power to do the same for state-level offenses. And his Administration is taking a major step to reschedule marijuana so it’s no longer classified as more dangerous than fentanyl or methamphetamine.”
Gay Valimont, a DNC delegate who is running against incumbent Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) this election, briefly touched on the issue at Tuesday’s DNC Platform Committee hearing, reiterating that the platform “showcases President Biden’s action to improve the criminal justice system by taking a major step to reschedule marijuana and pardoning those federally convicted of marijuana-only offenses.”
The platform, meanwhile, also says that Democrats “will take action to expunge federal marijuana-only convictions.” While Biden had repeatedly suggested his pardons already cleared records, he more recently clarified that that’s not the case. While pardons represent formal forgiveness, a president cannot unilaterally expunge records.
Notably, however, the party’s position on decriminalizing cannabis is not explicitly mentioned in this year’s platform. Biden had previously campaigned on that policy, but he’s been largely silent on decriminalization since being elected, despite Vice President Kamala Harris calling for broader marijuana legalization in a recent closed-door roundtable discussion with pardon recipients.
“Democrats will take action to expunge federal marijuana-only convictions.”
In addition to decriminalization, the prior 2020 platform DNC adopted also pushed for medical marijuana legalization, which is also omitted from this new draft version.
But the current form still stands in stark contrast with the 2024 GOP platform, which doesn’t touch on marijuana specifically at all but does promote policies that promote an anti-drug agenda. The party said it will “crack down hard on” and “demolish” drug cartels, for example.
Democrats are also hoping to leverage the contrasting marijuana positions of Biden and former President Donald Trump. DNC’s draft platform states that the Trump administration “threatened federal prosecution for marijuana cases in states where marijuana was legal” by rescinding Obama-era guidance that generally urged discretion in enforcing prohibition for cannabis-related activity that was legal under state law.
“Trump’s approach to criminal justice could not be more different. His Administration threatened federal prosecution for marijuana cases in states where marijuana was legal.”
The Biden campaign has also played into those differing policy positions, with multiple email blasts and online advertisements that frame the incumbent as the better choice for those who support cannabis reform.
Biden tweeted on Wednesday that he’s “making sure no one goes to jail for mere use or possession of marijuana, and their records should be expunged.”
“It’s time we right those historic wrongs,” he said.
I'm making sure no one goes to jail for mere use or possession of marijuana, and their records should be expunged.
It’s time we right those historic wrongs.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 17, 2024
The DNC’s vote to adopt the platform also came one day after Trump’s vice presidential pick, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), was announced at the Republican National Committee (RNC) conference following Trump’s formal nomination as the party’s presidential nominee. Vance has supported states’ rights to set their own cannabis laws, but he’s voted against bipartisan cannabis banking legislation and opposes broader legalization.
But while DNC and the Biden campaign want to strike a contrast with Republicans and Trump on marijuana policy reform, it’s still the case that the Democratic organization’s adopted positions fall short of what the majority of Americans, and especially left-leaning voters, support: federally legalizing marijuana.
Biden himself does not back that policy, as the White House had made clear. And during DNC’s 2020 platform meeting, the party’s delegates rejected a proposed amendment to make legalization part of its official stance.
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Photo courtesy of Mike Latimer.
