Politics
Top Drug Policy Group Releases Draft Marijuana Executive Order It Wants Biden To Sign Before Leaving Office
A leading drug policy advocacy group has published a draft executive order that it hopes will guide President Joe Biden or future administrations to promote equity in federal marijuana policy and steer the country away from the drug war. The suggested moves include mandating the attorney general to reinstate cannabis enforcement guidance that was rescinded under the Trump administration.
The Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) released the multi-part proposed order on Monday, pitching multiple reforms that could be implemented with executive authority from the White House, rather than waiting for Congress to legislatively enact them. The intent is to significantly build upon the marijuana pardons and rescheduling review directed under Biden.
“This proposal is not only a roadmap for President Biden to take action in the final days of his presidency but also a framework for future administrations to leverage executive authority to advance federal marijuana policies that are fair,” Cat Packer, director of drug markets and legal regulation at DPA, said in a press release. “The opportunity to lead on marijuana reform is not bound by political cycles—it is a responsibility for every administration committed to liberty, justice and public health.”
The order calls for the establishment of a 15-member National Advisory Council to Advance Equity and Public Health in Federal Cannabis Policy and Programs under the White House Domestic Policy Council. The presidential appointees would include cannabis policy experts, people who’ve been criminalized over marijuana and those with experience “advancing equity in cannabis policies and programs.”
The advisory council would be tasked with advising the administration on issues such as ending federal marijuana criminalization, repairing the harms of prohibition, promoting public health in cannabis programs and examining “other areas of federal drug policy and the criminalization of drug use that are leading to similar inequity and injustice as existing marijuana policy.”
On an annual basis, the advisory council would need to furnish the Domestic Policy Council with a report containing findings and recommendations.
DPA’s executive order would further mandate that the attorney general issue “updated guidance regarding marijuana enforcement and federal enforcement priorities,” reinstating a formal policy of non-intervention in state-level cannabis programs.
“This guidance should also expressly include, ‘preventing further inequities in arrests, convictions and prosecutions in the enforcement of federal marijuana laws and policies’ as a federal enforcement priority. This guidance should clarify that it shall not be an enforcement priority of the Department of Justice to seek prosecution or for any federal agency to take any punitive or retaliatory measures against a federal agency or employee acting in good faith for.”
The draft document also stipulates roles for other federal agencies, including coordination with the White House regarding their equity actions plans as they concern “marijuana policies and programs.”
The White House Steering Committee on Equity would be responsible for monitoring “federal agencies’ activities and annual evaluations to ensure that agencies undertake ambitious and measurable steps to deliver equitable outcomes in federal marijuana policies and programs.”
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB), meanwhile, would need consult federal agencies on “best practices to assess whether agencies’ policies and actions create or exacerbate barriers to full and equal participation by all eligible individuals, as well as on best practices to develop actionable steps to address any barriers identified.”
Additionally, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) would be mandated to ensure that any federal marijuana policies that are implemented promote public health and equity such as those contained in budgets, regulations, grants and programs. In the interest of advancing that goal, ONDCP would be asked to consider issues including drug prevention, “drug prevention, harm reduction, substance use disorder treatment and recovery, the illicit drug supply, criminal justice, and related data collection and research.”
Within 200 days of the executive order’s implementation, the heads of each federal agency would need to review and submit a report on its policies, examining “systemic barriers in accessing benefits and opportunities” for underserved communities with respect to federal marijuana policies, including prohibition.
They would also need to identify and make recommendations as to whether “new policies, regulations, or guidance documents may be necessary to advance equity in agency actions and programs.”
“Each federal agency head shall support ongoing implementation of a comprehensive strategy to advance equity in federal cannabis policy that uses the agency’s policy, budgetary, programmatic, service-delivery, procurement, data-collection processes, grant-making, public engagement, research and evaluation, and regulatory functions to enable the agency’s mission and service delivery to yield equitable outcomes for all Americans, including underserved communities.”
Starting in September 2026, and each year thereafter, federal agencies would need to develop and submit a “Cannabis Equity Action Plan” that details their progress and identifies any potential barriers for underserved communities to access their benefits.
“Federal agencies should take immediate actions to mitigate and address the harms of federal marijuana policies and drug policies, including harms associated with criminalization and related collateral consequences such as its impacts in civil systems. Federal agency heads shall work in coordination with the White House Steering Committee on Equity and the Advisory Council to conduct directives consistent with this section.”
The proposed order additionally calls on the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to work with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to develop a federal research agenda that examines health outcomes from different cannabis laws, tools to detect THC-impaired driving and harm reduction.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would be tasked with reviewing and making recommendations about “barriers to federal housing benefits related to marijuana convictions, including state law convictions.”
“This plan shall include updating 2014 guidance regarding ‘Use of Marijuana in Multifamily Assisted Properties’ aimed at reducing and mitigating the harms of evictions for marijuana use and possession,” the draft order says. “This plan shall also explore opportunities to restore such benefits to those previously evicted for personal use and possession and other marijuana-related conduct.”
For the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the order stipulates that the agency must “develop a plan to address, barriers for veterans seeking access to state-regulated medical marijuana programs, including reducing out-of-pocket costs and streamlining access.”
“This assessment and plan should seek to eliminate any barriers that may prevent [VA] providers from recommending medical marijuana to treat a condition when they feel their veteran patients could potentially benefit from such a treatment option or completing forms in compliance with state medical marijuana programs. This assessment and plan should also seek to reduce barriers for health care providers in VA medical centers related to counseling patients on evidence-based risks and benefits of cannabis use and counseling on harm reduction when using cannabis.”
In consultation with the attorney general, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security would be required to “assess and develop a plan to address inequities in immigration enforcement and barriers to receiving immigration benefits related to marijuana convictions and conduct.”
That would include “developing guidelines to clarify that marijuana-related conduct or convictions should not be prioritized for immigration arrest, detention, deportation, denial of immigration status.”
The Treasury Department would face a mandate to update existing federal guidance on marijuana banking issues, making it so cannabis convictions “shall not automatically be considered ‘red flags’ for the purpose of filing suspicious activity reports.”
The order would also require State Department officials to “take immediate actions to assess the harms, including disparate legal outcomes both domestically and internationally, from cannabis scheduling under the United Nations Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs and related drug control treaties.”
“The Department of State shall work with counterparts from other member states to mitigate the harms of controlling cannabis through multilateral treaties, including exploring options for modification or amendment of the treaties,” it says.
The prospects of Biden adopting the executive order are uncertain, but DPA gave the current administration a wide range of options if it is interested in expanding upon the president’s historic pardons and rescheduling directive that led the Justice Department to recommend moving cannabis to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). That rescheduling process is ongoing, and a final rule is unlikely to be issued before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
A coalition of 67 Democratic members of Congress has separately called on Biden to expand on his executive clemency work in the final months of his term, citing his past marijuana pardons as an example of his ability to provide “life-changing” relief to Americans.
Meanwhile, Biden also recently discussed his administration’s cannabis actions and reiterated his belief that criminalization over minor marijuana offenses is an outdated policy during a speech at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s (CBCF) 2024 Phoenix Awards Dinner.
Read DPA’s draft executive order on federal marijuana policy below:
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