It’s not just the GOP who are fed up with Biden’s inaction. There is a group of high-level Democrats who are fed up as well. The straw that broke the camel’s back seems to be Biden’s inability to make cannabis more available.
Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Ed Markey (D-MA), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) all sent a letter to both President Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
They started with some sweetness, praising the administration for recent pardons and commutations for non-violent cannabis-related offenses. But they are not happy with the lack of movement to address the “racist and harmful legacy of cannabis policies on Black and Brown communities.”
They are ticked about a letter that Booker and Warren sent to Garland last year asking the attorney general to declassify cannabis as a Schedule I drug. It took more than six months for an answer, and they were “extraordinarily disappointed” at the half-page response they got.
Garland simply points to the HHS determination that “cannabis has not been proven in scientific studies to be a safe and effective treatment for any disease or condition.”
They are adamant that this response ignores the DOJ and Drug Enforcement Administration’s role in continuing the rescheduling process. And the senators note that this can happen independently from any HHS determination.
And even more to their point, they said, “it is obvious that cannabis has widely accepted medical benefits, affirmed by medical and scientific communities both here and across the globe.”
There’s another left that was sent last year to the administration that is still unanswered. They were calling on Biden to pardon those who are convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses.
“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,” the lawmakers concluded. “We ask that the administration act quickly to rectify this decade long injustice harming individuals, especially Black and Brown communities.”
These progressive leaders don’t seem so irritated with the economy or the border chaos, but man are they irritated when it comes to cannabis!
