The American president called on the governors of the States to follow this path and to pardon those condemned for a simple offense of cannabis detention.
Le Monde with AFP
The American president, Joe Biden, announced, Thursday, October 6, the cancellation of all the federal convictions for simple detention of cannabis. “No one should be imprisoned for having simply consumed or possessed cannabis,” he said on Twitter, calling the governors of the States to follow this path and to collect people condemned for a simple offense of cannabis detention.
As i’ve Said Before, No One Should be in Jail Just for Using or Possessing Marijuana.
TODAY, i’m TOKING STEPS TO E… https://t.co/ztyihfskja
While the movement for the decriminalization of cannabis meets a strong echo in the United States, the president also called on the health and judicial authorities to rethink the sentences associated with the consumption or the detention of marijuana. Mr. Biden, however, insisted on the importance of continuing the fight against cannabis traffic and its sale to minors. 2>
an authorized use in nineteen states
These new measures also aim to rectify criminal procedures disproportionately striking ethnic minorities, justified the president. “Erase the criminal record of persons condemned for drug detention is a question of social justice,” applauded the influential elected Progressive Pramila Jayapal.
nineteen of the fifty American states, as well as the federal capital, Washington, legalized the use of cannabis recreational for adults. In most states, the medical use of cannabis is authorized to different degrees, since the use of oils containing a low rate of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, psychoactive principle of cannabis) to that of pure marijuana. Only a handful of ultra-conservative and rural states, such as Idaho, Wyoming or Nebraska, remain uncompromising.
“It is a victory for equity, justice and redemption”, welcomed Cynthia Roseberry, an official of the ACLU civil rights association. “This means that thousands of people will benefit from a second chance, instead of being punished forever for actions which are now legal or decriminalized in more than half of the States,” she added.
On the opposition side, the republican senator Tom Cotton has castigated “a desperate attempt to divert the attention of a bad leadership”.
a first step towards the reclassification of marijuana
Strangely, marijuana remains illegal at the federal level. The lower house of the American Congress had approved, in early April, a bill, carried by the elected officials of his Democratic Party, aimed at scratching the cannabis from the federal list of dangerous drugs. However, the text must still be adopted by the Senate.
The announcement of Joe Biden on Thursday, however symbolizes a first step towards its reclassification, and can be interpreted as a call for the foot of the young people, one month from the mid-term elections during which the Democrats could lose control of at least one of the two American parliamentary chambers.
According to a recent study, marijuana consumption among young Americans reached unrivaled levels last year. As a whole, the American population is mostly favorable to the legalization of cannabis. According to an investigation by the
Legal cannabis sales in the United States were last year around $ 25 billion and all experts predict rapid growth in the next years.