OP-ED: We must hold the Biden administration accountable to the Black community for marijuana reform

No one must be in jail or arrested for marijuana. However, despite evidence that white and black communities use marijuana at similar rates, Black persons are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. Even though dozens of states have passed laws legalizing marijuana for medical use and adult use, each are still punishable under federal marijuana law. A federal marijuana conviction can severely impact an individual’s ability to feed or house their family, and consequently, many individuals have lost food advantages, housing, employment and education.

In 2020, President Biden ran a campaign promising to end the criminalization of marijuana. To keep this promise, marijuana must be delisted, meaning it must be completely faraway from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA regulates certain drugs under federal law, placing them on considered one of five schedules and criminalizing unauthorized activity. For far too long, Black communities have borne the brunt of CSA’s criminal penalties. It’s time to finally end federal criminalization of marijuana by rescheduling it.

Let’s be honest, the Biden administration has yet to deliver on its guarantees on federal marijuana reform for Black communities. And while each President Biden and Vice President Harris have called federal marijuana criminalization a difficulty of racial equity, the recent and anticipated actions of their Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) underscore the disconnect between the administration’s rhetoric and its willingness to actually address the issue in this fashion .

While the remainder of us recognized the starting of Black History Month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) as an alternative selected the first day of February to rejoice #DEAHHistory and President Nixonwho signed the CSA and the infamously weaponized federal marijuana policy that targeted and harmed Black communities.

For many, the Biden administration’s DEA news was a wake-up call. It’s no secret that racism has been at the center of the DEA’s history and the criminalization of marijuana. Harry Anslinger believed it “Reefer makes black people think they are as good as white people” and as director of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (the predecessor of the DEA), Anslinger championed the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which criminalized marijuana at the federal level. In line with the celebration of presidency leaders who used drug policy to criminalize the Black community, the DEA museum has an exhibition online exhibition on Anslinger’s “life of service.”

The same federal agency that today celebrates the racist history of President Nixon and Harry Anslinger is now tasked with: and he already has a final decision, official review of marijuana classification under the CSA. While this review doesn’t mention this history in any respect, it should likely have the effect of further perpetuating racial inequality.

Starting this review in 2022President Biden has called the criminalization of marijuana a failure, acknowledged that Black and Brown people have been disproportionately arrested, prosecuted and convicted, and suggested that his actions on marijuana reform will “end the country’s failed approach” and “right its wrongs.”

Despite this rhetoricthe DEA is anticipated to propose that marijuana be placed on Schedule III, a classification that, while technically less restrictive in some respects, would proceed federal criminalization of marijuana and its harms. The marijuana industry will rejoice this as a victory because it should give them a tax break, but individuals will still be susceptible to federal penalties. An individual can still lose their job due to a marijuana conviction. An individual can still be deported for working at a licensed dispensary in a state where marijuana is legal.

The hard truth is that rescheduling won’t decriminalize marijuana use, expunge records, or decriminalize activities currently permitted under dozens of states’ medical and adult-use marijuana laws.

In 2020 Biden and Harris have pledged to decriminalize marijuana use and take away related provisionsmaking this commitment your individual The “Lift Every Voice” plan for black America. President Biden acknowledged his role in passing drug policies that ‘harmed Black communities’ calling it a “mistake”. Vice President Harris called for systemic change while discussing marijuana decriminalization in 2020, saying, “This will not be the time for half-dancing. This will not be the time for incrementalism”

Now the administration is taking responsibility for reforms which are, at best, gradual, and haven’t even been fully implemented. Regardless of this reality, the Biden administration is already claiming in its promoting campaigns that it does “revised federal marijuana policy”and in campaign speeches, President Biden is already alluding to his actions of granting federal pardons for easy possession of yaks proof of “promises kept” on marijuana reform.

In fact, pledging to decriminalize marijuana and easily moving it around on a CSA is nothing greater than shifting peas in your plate to trick your mom into pondering you are eating vegetables. Your mother wasn’t fooled and neither were we.

We know the difference between scattered guarantees and systemic change. We bear the brunt of disproportionate criminalization, and it’s up to us to hold the Biden administration accountable to its guarantees to our communities. If the Biden administration truly intends to keep its many guarantees and end the harm of marijuana criminalization, it will not be too late. However, President Biden guarantees that until marijuana is totally faraway from CSAs decriminalize marijuana will remain unfulfilled.