Hickenlooper, Colleagues Urge Biden to Continue Progress on Federal Marijuana Law Before End of Administration

Lawmakers applaud previous efforts to right harms of marijuana criminalization, push for more

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators John Hickenlooper, Elizabeth Warren, Ron Wyden, along with eleven of their Senate and House colleagues, recently called on President Biden to make further progress on reducing the harms caused by federal marijuana policy before the end of his administration.

"Rescheduling marijuana and the prior round of pardons must not be the end of this Administration's historic work to use its executive authority to undo the damage of federal marijuana policy," wrote the lawmakers. "The Biden Administration has the opportunity to further reduce the harms of marijuana's criminalization before the end of this Administration by issuing another round of clemency and an updated memorandum on prosecutorial discretion for marijuana offenses."

The Biden-Harris Administration previously issued pardons for individuals convicted of simple marijuana possession and announced plans to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act. In their letter, the lawmakers urged the administration to complete the rescheduling process as soon as possible and to issue another round of pardons and sentence reductions for individuals with low-level, non-violent marijuana-related convictions.

They also called on the administration to work with governors to expand marijuana clemency and decriminalize low-level marijuana conduct under state law and encouraged the Department of Justice to deprioritize prosecuting individuals for marijuana offenses that have been the subject of federal pardons or that comply with state or Tribal law.

Earlier this year, Hickenlooper urged the DEA to completely deschedule marijuana. Hickenlooper co-sponsors the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which would deschedule marijuana, and leads the PREPARE Act, which would direct the federal government to develop a regulatory framework for when marijuana is legalized federally.

Full text of the letter is available HERE.

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