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Comment by uup | Hacker News Reader

I saw this on Reddit and it resonated. Yes, it’s the election season and we’re seeing democracy in action: that’s when elected officials do things you like and then you vote for them again. Not sure why you’re making it sound like a bad thing.

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No federal law is changing. This is a one time get out of jail free card. People arrested for the same crimes after he pardons current people in prison don't get the benefit.

The scheduling of marijuana is changing.

It's being looked at, but that's not at this point guaranteed

No, and that’s because he doesn’t have the power to unilaterally do that, but he is trying to get it rescheduled

He doesn’t technically have the unilateral power to prevent future people from being charged federally with simple possession, but in reality, he kind of does (while he’s president).

Sends a pretty clear message to any federal prosecutor that is deciding if they want to charge this. Obviously, the prosecutor can spend the time and effort on this if they want, but it’s time that will probably be better served doing something else if they don’t want to see their work wiped away by the stroke of a pen in the future.

> he is trying to get it rescheduled

Do you have a link about this? Because he's shown hostility towards marijuana legalization, promised to veto it if it was sent to him, and in the past supported draconian drug laws.

https://mobile.twitter.com/POTUS/status/1578097878094024712

Point 3.

Tweets do not official policy make. If you need examples, you need but examine his tweets all through 2019 and 2020 - they're loaded with promises and plans. This is certainly not exclusive to POTUS.

Show me a policy document along with a bill from that office and I'll consider it more than an election year symbolic gesture.

This feels like a too mean-spirited take. According to this[0] he may not need a bill, and in fact may have taken the first step

0: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2015/02/13/how-to-resc...

I think there's a huge difference between tweets with "promises and plans" (especially from before he was actually elected), and tweets saying "I have done this thing. I am doing this other thing."

It's reasonable to be cautious about a politician making a promise in anything but the most legally-binding possible way. It's not reasonable to straight-out call that politician a bald-faced liar if he hasn't demonstrated a propensity for such lies (unlike some I could easily name).

Policy or not, intent was clearly declared. Not vague statements, but specific actions including a direct callout to the secretary of HHS to initiate the rescheduling review.

Obviously we can only wait to see what comes next, but I'm not sure what more you'd want? The review process has to occur, so there's no additional "policy" to be had at the moment. Obviously there's a possibility that rescheduling doesn't happen as a result of that review, but that hardly seems likely given the current political and social climate around marijuana.

Seemed like a pretty straight-forward way to communicate "and this is step 2, which is a work in progress".

His tweets 2019 and 2020 are indeed "loaded with promises and plans", but that's because he was literally not president at that time. Now that he is president, tweets from @POTUS are intended and expected official statements. Sure he could be completely bullshitting with his tweets, but he could do the same with a "policy document"

(White House and executive offices don't produce "bills", other than signing the ones proposed and passed through Congress)

People can change their mind.

And when they do it like this it shows the are opportunist

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases...

He can and will suggest to the DOJ that they don’t charge anyone for simple possession of marijuana, and they won’t.

Edit: of course that’s temporary.

That makes it sustainable.

Now the president can pardon people for this before every election!

It's a solid political play, and I don't recall seeing that done before (I've only been voting since '97). We'll likely see this kind of thing more often now.

Technically it's not a get out of jail free card, as I understand it, no one is actually held in jail for this right now. Though it does remove it from their records.

>no one is actually held in jail for this right now

6000+ people were.

Because they stop doing the things you like once the election is over

Sure, but then there is another election. After the election is before the election.

If I elect someone to lead the country for 4 years, I’d prefer they lead the country for at least 3.75 of those years, not for two 4-6 month stints in 4 years.

(Neither party has a monopoly on this BS.)

I use cannabis daily and am all for it being legalized and those in jail released. However, I cannot join you in a victory lap here because Biden's pardon affects nobody. As far as I know, there isn't anybody in federal prison on simple possession charges. That being the case, this smacks of politicking, optics, and opportunism rather than anything meaningful. If Biden wanted to do something substantial, he'd sign legislation legalizing cannabis (including growing your own).

He can only sign legislation presented to him to sign by Congress.

It's bad because there are people that have been sitting in prison that could have been released over a year and a half ago, but Biden would rather let them rot for a while longer just so he could score political points at a more convenient time.

Someone higher up in the tree said there wasn’t a single person sitting in federal pen for this. I’m not sure, but I can’t imagine it’s frequently charged federally

From a legal point of view, when is marijuana possession a federal offence and when is it a state offence?

Presumably if you're caught with weed in DC then it's federal. But under what circumstances could you be found in possession with marijuana anywhere else and have it be a matter for the federal government, not the state one?

Federal park land?

Shit's illegal and people are mad. Dude tries to cut some folks a break and people are mad. Conclusion: some people are born mad and gonna stay that way regardless.

Hm.. can you imagine homosexuality being banned and people being mad just cause they pardon only a certain type before elections?

Intentionally or otherwise you're equating lifestyle choices with sexual orientation and that is not a good look for all the same reasons that the rationale behind conversion therapy is garbage.

Who got a break in this deal exactly? There isn't anybody in federal prison for simple possession charges. It's like him giving every man, woman, and child in Antarctica a pony, only not as efficacious.

Yeah he totally should have issued state-level pardons for possession. What in the hell is wrong with this guy...

The difference is that if they were winning they wouldn't do this. This is textbook vote buying. They are absolutely terrified of the election season after the market collapse, inflation, housing situation, war in ukraine, etc. Easy to lock in quite a few votes throwing a bone. Republicans did the same thing last election season and capitulated (temporarily) on a lot of their positions in order to pull in the independents.

I wish you were correct. But there's a difference between doing something because you know it's right (implore congress to pass legislation on marijuana immediately) and because you need the votes. Only one of them is virtuous even though both ostensibly benefit the people.

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