Biden's pardon of marijuana offenders won't release anyone from prison

While I applaud the decision to pardon everyone that has been charged on a federal level for simple possession of marijuana, I think people need to understand that this move was likely political and in preparation for trying to win some points with the public before the November mid-terms. I am just untrusting of government in a general sense and this is why even before I looked into it that I felt as though this decision on the part of the Biden administration was purely ceremonial.

Don't get the wrong idea here: I do not disagree with this decision but I feel as though it doesn't really accomplish anything since there aren't very many people that this would have applied to in the first place.

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While I rarely partake in the leaf myself, I do know people that are regular users and I am quite certain that certain members of my teams on the various construction projects that I oversee are high at work. We joke about it because it doesn't affect their performance on the job - in many ways it makes them more focused - but if they think I can't tell that they are high they are kidding themselves, I went to a party college and am very familiar with how stoned people behave.

That being said I think the fact that anyone would go to jail for having marijuana in their possession is just plain silly and here's the thing: As much as politicians would like to convince you that there are a bunch of people languishing away in prison for being weed smokers, this simply isn't true. People are in jail for being drug traffickers, not because they buy a bag for personal use.

Biden also told some half-truths as we have come to expect from him and most other politicians when he said that "currently there are 6500 people in federal prison with simple possession convictions, all of these will be pardoned."

This much is true but he neglected to point out the real reason why these people are in prison goes well above and beyond simple possession. These individuals are in prison for far greater crimes and the weed possession charge was just one of many other charges that they were convicted of. Pardoning a convicted murderer of their marijuana possession isn't going to do a great deal about their sentence, nor should it.

I believe the timing of this announcement is very telling, as is the fact that exactly zero prisoners are going to end up being released from jail because of this action. It also does not decriminalize possession of marijuana on a federal, or any other level. It could be sending a message to some people out there that "yeah! Weed is legal now!"

No, it is not. It should be but it still isn't.

I don't really understand how it works but these sorts of laws are by design left very much in the hands of the individual states which is why even though marijuana is still illegal on a federal level, you are free to use it to your heart's content in places like Oregon and California but if you light up in public in Iowa or my home state of North Carolina, you are going to be approached by police and fined. I have a friend that I went to college with who still has a simple possession charge on his record and this is problematic for him when he applies for certain jobs. He will not be pardoned because his conviction came at the hands of the State of North Carolina, not the federal government.

Even though I believe this move was purely political in nature and doesn't really benefit anyone, I am glad that something was done to make a move in the direction of making the plant legal. To me it doesn't make any sense that booze and cigarettes are legal, but marijuana isn't.