How potent is pot as a midterms issue for Democrats?

What’s happening

President Biden announced last week that he is pardoning thousands of people with federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana.

“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs,” Biden wrote in a statement announcing the decision.

The president urged the governors of all 50 states to follow his lead and pardon those convicted of possession at the state level, where the vast majority of marijuana convictions occur. He also instructed his administration to begin a review of whether marijuana should be reclassified under federal law. The drug is currently listed as a Schedule I drug — a category for substances with “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse” — alongside drugs like heroin and LSD.

As policy, Biden’s pardons represent a relatively modest change. It will only apply to about 6,500 people, none of whom are currently in prison on possession charges. But they serve as a marker of the extraordinary evolution that the country (and Biden himself) has undergone when it comes to marijuana.

While serving in the Senate, Biden was a key architect of a series of laws that created harsh sentences for drug offenses. In 2020, however, he called for marijuana possession to be decriminalized nationwide — a step short of legalization that would mean anyone found possessing marijuana would face no criminal penalties.

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