“This is a game changer.” That was my first thought as a retired police officer, when I learned that President Joe Biden had signed an executive order pardoning people convicted of minor federal marijuana possession charges and asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General to review his schedule under the Controlled Substances Act.
After two decades in law enforcement, I’ve spent the past 10 years working to reform the criminal justice system, beginning with the War on Drugs. Few policies in American history have done so much harm as this racist, cruel, and ineffective set of laws that distorted the goals of policing, produced exorbitant profits for organized crime, and criminalized millions of people needlessly and counterproductively.
Biden’s announcement yesterday holds the potential to be the most significant reform of the federal drug law since former President Richard Nixon began the war on drugs in earnest in 1971. While the move to pardon low-level federal marijuana offenders is applauded, this is mostly a symbolic gesture : State and local arrests of marijuana outnumber arrests by the federal government. This command will clear the list for About 6500 people.
Most important is directing HHS and the Department of Justice for a “rapid review” of the DEA’s classification of marijuana, and the president has urged governors across the country to follow the lead of the millions of people with arrest records at the state and local levels. The first is the first step to sensible regulation of marijuana. The latter indicates that he is serious about it.
Currently, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, the most restrictive class, intended for those drugs that have no medical use and high potential for abuse. After years of sensible legalization and regulation at the state level and a growing consensus about its medicinal value, does anyone still think it belongs there?
While Biden has previously alluded to this Supports the rescheduling of cannabis to the second schedule, and the administration insists it is not campaigning for any result, such a small change probably does not guarantee a full pardon for all perpetrators of minor possession charges. I hope the endgame here is the complete elimination of marijuana, its regulation much like the tobacco and alcohol regimen. It is absolutely essential for the future of policing.
Since the beginning of the War on Drugs, enforcing drug policy against Americans who make their consensual choices has been one of the primary tasks of local, state, and federal law enforcement. Incentives abound — from federal grants to promotion opportunities for individuals at all levels — for police to make drug-related arrests their number one priority. But as the wire And other presentations have made it clear, and countless research studies have shown, that it is not the quality of the arrest that matters, but the quantity.
It is much easier to raid a street corner, arrest a dozen low-level sellers and buyers and report it to the public as evidence of “police competence” than to spend months and several officers investigating a single murder. In fact, clearance rates (the rate at which police solve crimes) for violent crimes have It has decreased in the last 50 years since the start of the war on drugs During the pre-pandemic period The number of drug arrests for violent crime exceeded 3:1—With marijuana making up about a third of those arrests.
“Currently, marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, the most restrictive class, intended for those drugs that have no medical use and high potential for abuse.“
Furthermore, when hemp is an illegal product, sellers not only charge a higher price for it, nor do they need to pay taxes, monitor their products for safety or purity, or restrict who they sell to. In fact, sales to children under the age of 21 make up a large portion of the illicit market. This all changes when it is de-scheduled and regulated as in 19 states and Washington, D.C., those states (and one county) have taken a large portion of the profits made by cartels and other criminal organizations, and the money they used to fund every other criminal activity – such as drug smuggling and trafficking By sex, you name it.
Instead, that money now goes to local business owners who pay taxes, monitor their products, and verify IDs. It was a massive blow to the gangs, while entering the countries Billions of dollars in taxes.
So through legalization, we are simultaneously defunding criminal organizations and allowing the police to go back to what the police are for in the first place: to prevent and solve violent crime.
Some people here would argue that if these laws get people to stop using substances that are harmful to them, then it is worth it. But Instead of stopping people from using cannabis,These arrests undermined public confidence in law enforcement and deepened social and ethnic divisions.
Any arrest, especially one that leads to imprisonment, creates a criminal record that makes it more difficult Get a job and find housing. And because people of color They still get arrested for marijuana at a higher rate than white Americans – though White and black people use marijuana at similar rates– This is far-reaching Intergenerational influencesespecially in poor and marginalized communities. In addition, higher incarceration rates are associated with Deteriorating medical and economic health of societies and Increased crime rates.
Worse, these effects often make a switch to escalating criminal activity the best or only option for people excluded from employment considerations because of an arrest history. It is a vicious cycle that undermines public safety and has its roots in racist past.
As a law enforcement professional, I am fully aware of how far the effects of this executive order will be. This is not a light at the end of many years of advocacy, it is the beginning of an era for better drug policy and reasonable regulation.
Lieutenant Diane Goldstein (ret.) is a 21-year police veteran and executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEP).boom – leap), a nonprofit group of police, judges, and other law enforcement professionals who support policies that improve public safety and police-community relations.
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