SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – President Joe Biden announced Thursday that he's offering pardons to people in the United States who are convicted of simple marijuana possession at the federal level, and called on states to take similar actions for people convicted under state law.
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A vast majority of people convicted for marijuana possession in the country are in state systems, and White House officials said yesterday that no one is serving time in federal prison for just marijuana possession.
But, there are around 6,500 people who have marijuana possession on their records. "Partly it will expunge that from the records," KCBS Political Analyst Marc Sandalow told Eric Thomas and Margie Shafer on Friday.
"They can take steps to remove it and it’s really important when you're going to a job and they ask if you've ever been convicted, have you ever spent time in prison," he said. "And if you have to check yes and then you have to explain it was marijuana possession, that puts you at a disadvantage."
With this new slew of pardons, this group of people will have a much easier time finding work.
While California has typically been ahead of the game in terms of marijuana acceptance as opposed to the rest of the country, that hasn't been the case for everything.
"But there are still thousands of people with marijuana convictions on their record in California," said Sandalow. But California already has some laws in place to help people clear state charges from their records.
Biden's decision on Thursday, as this is mostly a state crime, not a federal crime, is more of a push to encourage governors across the country to follow suit.
"That may be more important in places like Texas than California," he said. But there are still thousands upon thousands of people with these charges on their records.
And the majority of those who are targeted for these charges are minorities, in California in particular they are Latinx, and around the rest of the country, they are often Black.
But despite the polarization across the political spectrum right now, it's unlikely there will be much uproar over this recent decision.
"I don’t think that middle America has a big problem with lighter sentences for marijuana," said Sandalow. "I do think there are Republicans who will talk about this loosening laws and making law enforcement less effective."
"But the fact is attitudes like on so many other social issues over the last 20 years had changed dramatically," he said. "I don't think there’s going to be much of a backlash whether you're in San Francisco or whether you're in Kansas."
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