New polling finds strong support among voters for President Joe Biden’s federal moves on marijuana last week, including his decision to pardon those with certain marijuana convictions and his statement that he will consider decriminalizing the drug on the federal level.
A poll conducted by Morning Consult/Politico after Biden’s announcement on Thursday found that nearly 7 in 10 voters — 69 percent — support Biden’s move to ask his administration to consider federal decriminalization of marijuana, with only 18 percent saying they oppose the move and 43 percent saying they “strongly” approve.
The poll also found that voters support Biden’s decision to pardon about 6,500 people of their federal convictions for simple marijuana possession. Sixty-five percent of respondents said that they agreed with the action, which advocates say could help people who have faced such convictions with things like getting a job or renting or buying a house. This polling lines up with other recent polling from Ipsos that also found majority support for the decriminalization moves and pardons.
The strong support for Biden to consider decriminalizing the drug is an indication that following through on the action would be a politically savvy move at a crucial time for the president. With the midterm elections coming soon, decriminalization could provide Democrats with a much-needed boost.
Marijuana is currently classified as a Schedule I drug, which means that violations of federal laws over possessing or selling the drug can come with some of the harshest drug-related punishments. Federal descheduling, or decriminalizing, of the drug, is a step short of legalization — but it could make it so that its use and possession comes with minimal to no penalties if caught, putting it in a similar legal class to alcohol.
Advocates have long called for descheduling the drug, saying that marijuana doesn’t clinically align with many other Schedule I drugs like heroin and that descheduling it would be a step toward ending the country’s racist failed war on drugs, which Biden had a major hand in manufacturing.
Though advocates praised Biden for his moves on Thursday, they say he could do much more in this realm, including expunging the charges he pardoned from people’s records and widening the scope of the pardons or expungements.
Advocates and progressive lawmakers have also called for Biden to throw his weight behind legalizing the drug.
Polls have consistently found that marijuana legalization is popular — and that legalization could drive people out to vote. Another Morning Consult/Politico poll published last week found that 60 percent of all voters support nationwide marijuana legalization, including 71 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of independents. Republicans were split on the issue, with 47 percent supporting it and 41 percent against it.
The House has continually passed bills to legalize marijuana nationwide, but the issue is a nonstarter in the Senate, where some conservative Democrats and Republicans oppose the idea.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 143 new monthly donors before midnight tonight.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy