WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last week President Joe Biden made the statement that he was issuing a blanket pardon for all of those who had been convicted of the federal crime of mere marijuana possession. Most major news organizations covered the announcement with absolute glee, but it will not impact a single person currently serving time in federal prison.
“Thousands of people will be impacted by this,” many news journalists reported. However, they were deflecting from what is really happening.
Despite the fact that today’s pot has four times the potency of your grandparents weed, and the inescapable reality that it is indeed a gateway drug, Biden is making a political move that is receiving applause from drug users and non-drug users alike, since everyone seemingly has a family member struggling with addiction.
So even though America is currently experiencing 275 overdose deaths EVERY DAY, according to CDC figures, Law Officer previously reported, and drug psychosis is conjoined with our current mental health crises, Biden feels the urgent need to announce a widespread pardon for simple marijuana users.
Law Officer’s managing editor Jim McNeff goes back to early 80s in law enforcement. He also worked undercover narcotics for 10 years during his nearly 30 years of active duty.
“When I began my career in law enforcement, simple possession of marijuana was nothing more than a ticket in my jurisdiction. By the time I retired, all you needed was a doctor’s recommendation letter and you could possess it without fear of a ticket. If you were too stoned to obtain or carry a recommendation letter with you, it was a $50 fine, but it was not a bookable offense, never was in my city during my tenure,” McNeff said. “I worked street level drug dealers and major cases with a state task force, and not once in nearly 30 years did I ever see a person booked for the federal crime of simple marijuana possession. … Now armed robbery with weed in your pocket, that is another story. But everyone keeps talking about mere marijuana possession.”
Therefore, he wondered who were all of these people in federal custody being pardoned.
The answer is 0, as in ZERO, nil, nada, none! There is not a single person in federal prison for the singular crime of mere marijuana possession getting pardoned.
Sadly, we didn’t receive this figure from any of the major news organizations. We heard it from a political commentator who address news with a Christian worldview, Dr. Albert Mohler, who is also president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
On his Monday podcast, called The Briefing, Mohler said, “The president announced this massively important pardon of all persons who are convicted of the simple crime of marijuana possession at the federal level and are currently serving time in federal prison systems. That would amount to how many people? Well, I ask you to imagine the enormity of this number. The number of persons who will be released because of this presidential pardon is exactly zero.”
Continuing, Mohler expressed a statement that is consistent with our own expertise, “The reason why that number is zero is because, according to most legal authorities, there are absolutely no persons currently serving any time in a federal prison because of the simple singular charge of marijuana possession.”
Finally, we found another source reporting this truth. U.S. News wrote, “Biden’s pardons announced Oct. 6 affect about 6,500 people convicted of cannabis possession at the federal level. None remain in prison.”
Returning to Mohler’s commentary, he answers the rhetorical question, “Why would the President do this?”
“Well, let’s just state the obvious,” Mohler said. “Midterm elections are coming up. The President and his party are very much on the line, and this is the kind of thing you might well expect a Democratic president to do with the clock running out before the midterm elections. And the President, let’s just state clearly, has a lot at stake in these midterm elections. Frankly, we all do. But nonetheless, this is a largely political act, and the President knew it was a political act because he knew he wasn’t actually springing anyone from any prison. The larger part of what the President did was basically to add momentum towards the acceptability of marijuana, the normalization of marijuana.”
As he concluded his thoughts for the day, Mohler said, “And remember that as a result of the President’s pardon, exactly zero people will be released from federal prisons. A far larger number of people may have their criminal records changed or expunged at some level, but exactly how that works is not yet clear, not at all. The bigger issue is political, and the political momentum is clearly towards the legalization and normalization of marijuana.”
