Senators Call Out Biden & DOJ for “Extraordinarily Dissapointing” Lack of Action on Cannabis

Photo credit: NORML

​A coalition of six U.S. senators issued a letter regarding cannabis to President Joe Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra.

The letter requested that the attorney general work independently to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, and also, that the President issue mass clemency for people with non-violent federal marijuana convictions.

This letter was sent by six democratic senators: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, Ron Wyden, Ed Markey, and Kirsten Gillibrand.

In their letter, the senators noted that they sent a prior similar letter in October 2021. They said the response from the Department of Justice took six months and their “half-page response” was “extraordinarily disappointing.”

The senators said that in the prior letter’s response, the Department of Justice said they could not take any action because the Health & Human Services department has not yet determined that cannabis is a safe and effective therapeutic treatment option.

The senators said they “ignore the ability of the Department of Justiceand Drug Enforcement Administration to begin the descsheduling process and act independently of an HHS determination.”

The senators latest letter then went on to explain how the Attorney General is actually empowered under the Controlled Substances Act to request that the Health & Human Services do a scientific review of cannabis. They said, “Put simply, the Department of Justice need not wait on any Health & Human Services determination to begin this process. Moreover, it is obvious that cannabis has widely accepted medical benefits, affirmed by medical and scientific communities both here and across the globe.”

The senators also wrote about Biden’s unfulfilled campaign pledges, where he said if elected he would decriminalize marijuana, expunge prior cannabis records, and reschedule the plant under the CSA.

Then the letter goes on to say, “The Administration’s failure to coordinate a timely review of its cannabis policy is harming thousands of Americans, slowing research, and depriving Americans of their ability to use marijuana for medical or other purposes. We ask that the Biden Administration act quickly to rectify this decade long injustice harming individuals, especially Black and Brown communities.” 

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