US: We must hold the Biden administration accountable to the Black community on marijuana reform

No one should be in jail or arrested for marijuana. Yet, despite evidence that white and Black communities use marijuana at similar rates, Black people are 3.7 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people. Despite dozens of states passing laws to legalize marijuana for medical and adult use, both continue to be criminalized under federal marijuana law. A federal marijuana conviction could severely impact a person’s ability to feed or house their family, and so many have lost food benefits, housing, employment, and education.

In 2020 President Biden campaigned on a promise to end marijuana criminalization. In order to keep that promise, marijuana must be descheduled, meaning it must be removed entirely from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA regulates certain drugs under federal law by placing them into one of five schedules and criminalizing unauthorized activity. For far too long Black communities have borne the brunt of the CSA’s criminal penalties. It’s time to finally end federal marijuana criminalization by descheduling it.

Let’s just be honest — the Biden Administration has yet to deliver its promises of federal marijuana reform to Black communities. And despite both President Biden and Vice President Harris calling federal marijuana criminalization a racial equity issue, the recent and anticipated actions of their Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) highlight the gap between the Administration’s rhetoric and their willingness to actually address it as such.

While the rest of us recognized the beginning of Black History Month, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) instead chose the first day of February to celebrate #DEAHistory and President Nixon, who signed the CSA and infamously weaponized federal marijuana policy that targeted and harmed Black communities.