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Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

whitehouse.gov

321–330 of 351 posts

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#321
post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The president can however pardon in states using “emergency powers”. Our constitution does not define the breadth and depth of emergency powers and it would be up for both congress and SCOTUS to decide that the president can’t do that. I would hope that a president would just say fuck it and try this though. As much as I want things to be done “the right way”, I value lives of folks more than my neurodivergent desire…

> The president can however pardon in states using “emergency powers”. No, he can't. > Our constitution does not define the breadth and depth of emergency powers In our system, federal powers not defined in the Constitution do not exist .

Emergency powers are not in the constitution, they’re basically “up in the air” of precedent.

It is likely that if an action like this is taken, feathers will be rustled. However if that rustling would impact anything is completely up in the air.

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#322

For reference, as of January 2022 there were ZERO people in federal custody solely for simple possession of marijuana[0]. As a gesture, this seems fine. But the continued presence of cannabis on Schedule I makes an absolute mockery out of our entire code of laws. [0]: https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/weighing-impa...

> Just over 300 people — or 0.5% of the total prison population — are behind bars for any sort of drug possession. [1] If anything it'll help some folks to have a their records cleaned up. [1]: https://www.businessinsider.com/bidens-marijuana-pardons-won...

I think most libertarians argue holds water that weed and dealing weed is a victimless crime. Now redo that with "how many people are in for dealing weed (and only weed) and other drugs" and that number goes way up. Obviously people found with guns and doing violence while selling drugs is another thing, no longer victimless. The War on Drugs is multidecade failure

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now you're way off the map. The originem claim was that controlled fentanyl dose would decrease overdoses. It wasn't about oxycodone being 'safe' (even though I gave you stats that showed 80% of deaths of from combining drugs), it wasn't about oxycodone vs heroin. Not to mention that way more people take oxycodone than heroin, so even from a stats 101 angle this doesn't make sense. Really, what is the point of a repl…

I don't think I am. The subtext of the original comment was that making opiates more widely available but more carefully regulated as to content and dosage would save lives. It pretty clearly would not do that. The high order bit of this problem is the number of people that start habitually using opiates; I think basically nothing else matters.

It pretty clearly would not do that.

Clear according to what? You gave no statistics and made nothing but unbacked claims. Most of what you did say is directly contradicted by the CDC.

Fentanyl is extremely potent and has a very narrow window between therapeutic dose and an overdose that kills you. Other opiate cause deaths overwhelmingly only when combined with other drugs.

Everything you have said about increased use or more deaths is an assumption not based on data. Why won't you source your claims?

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#324
post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the discretion of both law enforcement officers and prosecutors.

Do you have evidence that cannabis laws were enforced disproportionately?

sure, let me spend my Saturday going on Google for you, to find the overwhelming evidence that has been gathered for the past several decades, which you somehow missed.

or claim to have missed.

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100%. The War on Drugs was always in contradiction of the spirit of the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition. It needs to be formally acknowledged as such, and further as fundamentally unconstitutional, but these kinds of victories take time. At least that so-called "War" is destroying fewer lives now.

Measured by annual average alcohol consumption in the US before and after prohibition, the 21st amendment was a huge success. I think temporary society-scale prohibition when drug use becomes a widespread societal ill is good policy. Afterward, individual mandatory punishment/rehab for those who abuse drugs/alcohol and harm themselves and others should be the norm.

> I think temporary society-scale prohibition when drug use becomes a widespread societal ill is good policy.

OK, but we passed a constitutional amendment saying the opposite, and the so-called "War on Drugs" operates in defiance of the spirit of that amendment.

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#326

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The president can however pardon in states using “emergency powers”. No, he can't. > Our constitution does not define the breadth and depth of emergency powers In our system, federal powers not defined in the Constitution do not exist .

Emergency powers are not in the constitution, they’re basically “up in the air” of precedent. It is likely that if an action like this is taken, feathers will be rustled. However if that rustling would impact anything is completely up in the air.

> Emergency powers are not in the constitution, they’re basically “up in the air” of precedent.

No, emergency powers that actually exist are components of Constitutionally enumerated powers and, for the President, are mostly spelled out in statute law passed by Congress under its Constitutionally enumerated powers.

There is no source of powers for the US government outside of the Constitution.

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#327

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the law is always complicated

"because reasons" isn't actually a good justification for a system that's broken and corrupted beyond all repair

not what I said, but I will rephrase for you.

the law is inherently always complicated, because it, by definition, must provide general and categorical solutions to a wide range of particular instances.

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#328
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, 2016 is somewhat dated as far as fentanyl goes. It has really exploded since that time. > In 2021, nearly 71,000 drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids (other than methadone) occurred in the United States, which is more deaths than from any other type of opioid. Synthetic opioid-involved death rates increased by over 22% from 2020 to 2021 and accounted for nearly 88% of all opioid-involved deaths in 2…

What I posted wasn't about fentanyl. They implied that overdoses happen just as much with prescription pain killers that have consistent doses and what I posted shows that people aren't overdosing on known doses, they die when they combine drugs.

Sure.

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But the pardon can allow those with convictions on their record to live a normal life. Edit: major caveat, all the data harvesting and background check firms generally do not proactively purge their data sets as they’re supposed to. It’s your obligation to follow up with every single one of them individually, and there are a whole lot of them, they operate under the radar, and it’s hard to contact them. Finally it’s…

> Finally it’s impossible to verify they actually did. Sounds like an opportunity for someone to set up a service which does. Do the verification I mean. :)

Well you see, in the business of verifying someone's background it's really common to break the law and get way with it. The Verifiers are criminals themselves.

Re: Granting pardon for the offense of simple possession of or use of marijuana

#330
post #312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fentanyl is legal. It’s part of most epidurals given during childbirth, used for palliative care, and for all kinds of pain relief in medical settings.

Nuclear weapons are legal too. I just can't buy one.

Nuclear weapons aren’t part of common healthcare practices, so i’m not sure the analogy holds a lot of water - but i get your point
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