Friendly reminder that literally all legalization legislation and referendums have come through the Democratic party.
Biden already pledged support. He needs youth vote. There’s literally no reason he wouldn’t unless he was blocked by Republicans…
… Which he is.
Yeah but some white kid doesn’t get to blaze it with their free unicorn pony so end of democracy over it we get!
I am lost at what you are trying to say here. Check the end of the sentence.
Phlubba might be referring to right wing youths who would hypothetically vote against Biden or not vote at all, cascading into a loss of US Democracy and eventually the fall of NATO and potentially democracy across the world as a whole. I don’t think our situation is necessarily that bad, but it’s definitely one of many possible futures.
He’s saying the only thing he ever says: having expectations of Democrats means you’re a spoiled child.
The legalization of cannabis in my state was brought about by activists, not Democratic Party members, and was passed by the public, which is made up of a majority of unaffiliated voters. Our Democratic governor vehemently opposed the measure. He did implement it when it passed, which Republican legislatures and governors have not done when similar bills were passed by the public in Republican states, though.
Curious of the state but I’m willing to bet money >90% of those activists were, conveniently, voting Democrats or of the Democratic coalition.
This is generally reflected in public polling: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/03/26/most-americans-favor-legalizing-marijuana-for-medical-recreational-use/#:~:text=62%25 of conservative and moderate,Democrats (84%25) say this.
Finally, conservatives are starting to come around but they’re always behind the curve.
Friendly reminder that literally all legalization legislation and referendums have come through the Democratic party.
https://www.kiplinger.com/politics/red-states-embrace-marijuana-the-kiplinger-letter
Red states are poised to increasingly embrace weed. Ohio is the latest, becoming the 24th state to legalize marijuana for recreational use via a voter referendum. This follows successful efforts in the past two years in Montana and Missouri. Fourteen states have legalized marijuana for medical use only.
Then why is one of his campaign promises written as: “As president he will decriminalize cannabis…”
Is his campaign promising things he doesn’t have the power to do?
Yes this is literally par for the course for every single presidential campaign in history.
They promise what they’ll do. They don’t say try to do because that’s been tested in marketing and certainty sounds better. Nevertheless it’s not Biden’s fault his agenda for what he’s been voted into office on is being blocked by the opposition for poor reasons.
The question isn’t why isn’t Biden doing this, the issue is why are Republicans blocking it and why aren’t you trying to convince them and their supporters?
Well, I don’t have a study backing me up, but in my experience, promising what you can’t deliver often results in being called a liar.
I really don’t know why “other candidates do it” would be an excuse. The whole pitch for voting for him is that he is supposed to be better than the other candidates. Seems like whataboutism.
If I can’t believe any of the good campaign promises from biden because everyone lies, why should we take the scary campaign promises of republicans seriously?
It really leads to apathy in the voter base.
Is his campaign promising things he doesn’t have the power to do?
A president can do almost NOTHING unilaterally. What they’re promising you is what they’ll support if it makes it to their desk. This is how checks and balances work… if you want to vote for someone who has sworn to be as shitty as possible because the guy who swore to do things you want can’t just snap his fingers and make it happen, I guess nobody can stop you…
What you’re finding is that the Democratic party is still interested in a functioning government where people don’t just vote the party line like a borg - which results in more difficulty passing legislation. Unfortunately, “both sides same” isn’t remotely accurate which you’re finding out.
Memory of a goldfish.
Friendly reminder that mass incarceration was a bipartisan effort going back 4 decades.
Irrelevant. Read again, except this time more closely.
What matters is who changed first.
Democrats.
Democrats changed first.
As, in recent history preceding the great ideological shifts of party banners, they always do.
in recent history preceding the great ideological shifts of party banners
How old are you?
A lot of us consider 1994 to be pretty recent but maybe not to the younger crowd
You’re not allowed to talk about the '94 Crime Bill. You’re certainly not allowed to talk about the War on Drugs or the privatization of the modern prison industry.
Nobody ask where Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, Ted Kennedy, and Tip O’Neal were when any of this shit got passed.
Absolutely and under no circumstances should you google who gave Strom Thurmond’s eulogy.
He pushed a recommendation for it to be rescheduled to the DEA like two years ago and they’ve been stonewalling?
Before one of OP’s other posts on this topic was removed as misinformation, I asked under that post what Biden could possibly have done aside from pardoning all federal convictions for possession, requesting the DEA to reschedule marijuana, and introducing a bill for full federal legalization which the Republicans defeated (all three of which happened).
Crickets man. (I actually learned since then that it’s a little more complex – it actually seems like maybe Biden was opposed to the full legalization bill that Schumer was pushing, and there was definitely some level of Democratic opposition in the senate. So maybe that piece of the criticism is legit, IDK, but OP never brought that stuff up to me when I asked what Biden should do.)
That conversation was actually the exact point that I became confident that OP’s just here to shit on Biden and specifically Biden for whatever reason, and any concordance that emerges between what he’s saying and the truth is purely accidental, and he knows it.
(Also, fun fact Matt Gaetz switched sides to join with 2 other House Republicans to vote for weed legalization.)
It’s too bad that he’s just trying to shit on Biden. I have always been pro legalization.
I looked into this and found this legal sidebar somewhat informative.
In classic Biden/dem fashion, while it’s true he has done something that could lead towards delivering on his campaign promise, it’s comically little and falls far short of his full power. Why hasn’t he tried issuing executive orders to legalize or reschedule and force opponents of legalization to crawl out of the woodwork in a lawsuit? Alternatively, the DEA is part of the executive branch. He could immediately replace directors there with those who will implement this policy - why hasn’t this been done?
Biden literally threw up his hands and said “awww but my allies in Congress won’t let me do it.” Disingenuous at best.
This is correct. The HHS recommended rescheduling, and the DEA hasn’t responded to the recommendation. They’re probably concerned it’ll affect their budget having fewer criminals to pursue.
This is the relevant bit from the article:
In late 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing HHS to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, while giving a recommendation on whether it should be rescheduled. After a roughly year-long review, HHS sent a letter to the DEA in August requesting that they move marijuana to Schedule III.
They had their own review and recommended that Cannabis be moved from Schedule I(Drugs with no medicinal value and a high risk of harm/abuse - heroin,LSD,etc) to Schedule III(Drugs with low risk of harm/abuse and clear medicinal value - cough syrup,Ketamine,etc).
The Controlled Substances Act which established all our current drugs laws states that ONLY the DEA has the power to ultimately change the classification of any controlled substance. If the DEA does not feel inclined to change this, then nothing will happen with the recommendation. Biden can always play political hardball since the head of the agency is an appointed position, but it would still need to be confirmed by the Senate in the end.
I wouldn’t expect to see a drop to schedule III, but I think in the next five or so year we may see it become schedule II. Progress is progress I guess.
Exactly. He could issue an executive order, but if the DEA doesn’t agree before the order expires, it would be far more of devastating to the industry as a whole.
Schedule III(Drugs with low risk of harm/abuse and clear medicinal value - cough syrup,Ketamine,etc).
The same cough syrup that contains codeine, an opiate and creates a very strong physical addiction? The same that killed Juice WRLD and Pimp C? The one that almost killed Lil Nas and Macklemore?
The fact that marijuana is right now considered as more harmful than this and should be lowered to this kind of level is just fucked up
Then why is one of his campaign promises written as: “As president he will decriminalize cannabis…”
Is his campaign promising things he doesn’t have the power to do?
No one politician has the power to do anything directly, really. That’s how the US system of government works. It’s fundemantal to how it operates that no one politician can promise to singlehandedly do anything. So, since everyone understands that, they say what they intend to do.
It definitely needs to be decriminalized but that’ll actually take an act of Congress. Public pressure needs to be applied but let’s not pretend Biden can do this on his own
How dare a prosecutor of the law checks notes prosecute the law!
She’s done some scummy stuff as a DA but blaming her for what laws she’s legally required to enforce is just idiotic
It definitely needs to be decriminalized but that’ll actually take an act of Congress
There’s other ways to try, Biden just won’t.
Although the President may not unilaterally deschedule or reschedule a controlled substance, he does possess a large degree of indirect influence over scheduling decisions. The President could pursue the appointment of agency officials who favor descheduling, or use executive orders to direct DEA, HHS, and FDA to consider administrative descheduling of marijuana. The notice-and-comment rulemaking process would take time, and would be subject to judicial review if challenged, but could be done consistently with the CSA’s procedural requirements. In the alternative, the President could work with Congress to pursue descheduling through an amendment to the CSA.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10655
But the House passed a bill to deschedule in 2022, and Biden’s whole deal in the last primary was how well he could get Republican senators on board with Dem legislation.
He couldn’t.
But going back full circle:
Why did Biden promise to deschedule if there’s no way he can deschedule?
To the full-circle thing, I’m not sure what the point is. There was no explicit deadline. Promises by politicians to assert their position have been used since forever. It doesn’t change the fact there are obstructions to their good intentions. If I promise something and someone blocks me from viably pursuing it, that’s not on me, that’s on them: Republicans.
And if they approach it the wrong way, as quoted material suggests, it risks being thrown out by the conservative court making future attempts possibly more difficult.
If I promise something and someone blocks me from viably pursuing it, that’s not on me, that’s on them: Republicans.
If I promise my kid a trip to their favorite amusement park and then don’t get the big bonus I expected from work to afford it, it’s not my jobs fault the kid didn’t go to the park. It’s my fault for making a promise and not finding a way to follow through.
Fun fact: Biden has already pardoned thousands of people with marijuana convictions. Asking him to pardon EVERYONE when they may have had marijuana as a minor add-on to other criminal charges is a bit silly of an ask.
Biden doesn’t run the DEA and can’t force them to reschedule the drug. This is almost as dumb as the conservatives saying Biden needs to do something about border security then not being upset the Republicans have voted against every effort to do something about border security before it makes it to Biden’s desk.
*the number of people in this country who think the President is a dictator and can literally just make up laws on his own is terrifying.
The number of people in this country who want the President to be a dictator and literally just make up laws on his own is also terrifying.
Democrats said their hands were tied for decades. But Biden’s hands weren’t tied when he got to support Netanyahu’s genocide.
I don’t know about anyone else, but I cannot trust that when a democrat says their hands are tied, it’s actually the case, instead of just what democrats say about shit they don’t want to do.
Asking him to pardon EVERYONE when they may have had marijuana as a minor add-on to other criminal charges is a bit silly of an ask.
This would be pardoning the mary jane offenses but leaving the others
Biden doesn’t run the DEA and can’t force them to reschedule the drug.
Still a campaign promise
It was one of the campaign promises. Is it wrong to hold the president accountable for what they’ve said?
And even if he doesn’t have the authority to force it on his own, he still had enough influence to make it happen. Obama gets a lot of credit for “Obamacare,” even though it wouldn’t have happened without majority support in both the house and senate.
Dasvedanya comrade but can I remind you that despite being a lifelong liberal Donald Trump is committed to maximum jail sentences for drug crimes?
