Biden to pardon simple federal marijuana possession convicti

Post Reply New Topic

NPR News Story

Now I am more than convinced that Biden and Harris should be impeached. I am now more than convinced that fundamentalists Christians should be elected into the government. To quote W. S. Gilbert, “Let the punishment fit the crime.” You abuse drugs, the government should purposely overdose those convicted until dead.

Cant quite remember - which part of the Bible was that? The Old Testament where they cut off body parts as punishment or the New Testament where everything gets forgiven?

I think the pardon is long overdue as is complete legalization.

Hmm if anything I see this a reason to become more fond of harris and biden. Also weed isn't deadly...if you try to overdose a bunch of weed smokers we'll just puke all over you so enjoy...lol. Cause yeah that is what happens with too much weed. You puke and/or pass out before you can consume enough to die, hypothetically you could die from too much weed but it is difficult to consume a deadly amount of weed in a quick enogh time period for it to have that effect.

Like if you are keen on killing weed smokers, the weed doesn't kill us so you'll have to find another way to make dead stoners...

Plus the whole reason for the war on drugs was to have an excuse to throw black people in jail and, thus, take away their voting rights.

I sure hope the above was intended as sarcasm ...?

And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
Genesis 1:29

God said we can use any plant we want.
Lol He gave them to us and will be angry if we don’t use them.

Meanwhile in the UK there's a bunch of Tory police commissioners who want simple possession to be a Class A offense:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63115171

Not that it's going to happen. The UK can't afford to spend money on arresting harmless people.

As for Biden's pardoning initiative, it'll be interesting to see how many state governors follow suit.

I saw a news channel run something on this recently and I think the best complaint I saw, and I agree with it, if we're on track to legalize marijuana - expunge their records so they can get jobs. Pardons are great but they don't complete the circuit.

I clearly have my own biases on this topic as well, ie. instrumental use of drugs for cognitive enhancement or better self-knowledge / depth psychology applications vs. addiction or trying to numb ones self out to reality are completely different things. The biggest achievement of the war on drugs was politically alienating and economically attacking minorities and counterculture groups (which some of Nixon's staff actually claimed was the primary purpose). The number of people who ended up in jail for facilitating people being able to put what they chose in their bodies vs. the number of people who they saved from jumping off of buildings thinking they could fly is probably somewhere between 100:1 and 1000:1, and that fits the original intent. We also had a pivotal role in turning Mexico into a narco state and I'm guessing a character like Pablo Escobar in Columbia also probably wouldn't have been needed if we'd practiced saner laws around these things.

That said I'm not a Biden or Harris fan for all sorts of reasons, nor am I much a fan of the Democrat party, but this seems like it's the one thing I could sort-of count on them to get right and it seems like Biden's still dragging his heals on legalization (something that's really, at least these days, enjoyed bipartisan support).

I think at this point if something like that happens, or the US reverses course, stomps out THC-related commerce, and reinforces scheduling of both marijuana and psychedelics, they'd just need to state their intentions clearly - ie. this isn't about science, it's figuring out who socially fits in, who doesn't, and maximally punishing the later for their transgressions.