On Monday, protesters convened outside the White House and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Office Building to call on President Joe Biden to release nonviolent inmates serving federal prison sentences for cannabis-related charges. The protest, led by Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Last Prisoner Project, sought to highlight the insufficiencies of Biden's recently announced pardons for those convicted of marijuana possession.
Earlier this month, Biden announced that he would be pardoning the roughly 10,000 American citizens and permanent residents convicted of low-level marijuana possession charges. While the proclamation has been praised by drug reform advocates, the pardons are far from a radical step toward ending the drug war. In fact, the pardons will not free a single person from prison, instead benefiting only a minuscule portion of Americans with misdemeanor marijuana convictions.
