President Biden on Thursday announced that he is pardoning thousands of people who have federal convictions for “simple possession” of marijuana, part of what his administration is calling a three-step plan to ending the country’s “failed approach” to criminalizing the drug.
“As I often said during my campaign for President, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden said in a statement. “Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit.