President Joe Biden’s surprise marijuana pardon action last week has been widely praised as an important step toward righting the wrongs of prohibition. But advocates have also been quick to point out that the move is seriously limited in scope and will leave many victims of the war on cannabis behind, without relief.
People prosecuted at the state level, military service members, non-citizens and those with records for selling cannabis are among those still facing the consequences of criminalization regardless of the president’s proclamation, which only covers about 6,500 people who’ve been convicted of federal possession offenses and several thousand more who’ve violated the law in Washington, D.C.
Here’s a look at who is left behind by Biden’s cannabis clemency move:
People with state-level cannabis convictions
As president, Biden isn’t able to use executive action to force pardons for convictions at the state level—where the vast majority of cannabis enforcement takes place—but he has called on governors to provide the relief, with mixed reactions.
Some governors have said they’d review their own authority, while others have touted actions they’ve already taken. Still others have said outright that they wouldn’t be taking the president up on his request.
In any case,
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