Today, the USA announced all cannabis possession charges and convictions will be expunged! After generations of harassment, discrimination, stigma, and abuse, the simple act or owning cannabis for personal use will no longer be federally criminalized. This announcement suddenly puts the United States ahead of Canada in cannabis decriminalization, after Trudeau "legalized" it in 2018, without actually doing anything to end prohibition. Now, the USA finally looks ready to remove this safe and effective medicinal plant from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, another move in the right direction for freedom. This is something cannabis users, activists, and freedom-fighters have demanded for a very long time, leaving many (including myself) to wonder "WHY NOW?!"
CNN announces: "Biden on Thursday will pardon all prior federal offenses of simple marijuana possession. He will also encourage governors to take similar steps.. and will task.. Attorney General Merrick Garland to expeditiously review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law."
They go on to say "the moves stop short of full decriminalization, which has enjoyed growing support among both political parties. But they are the first significant steps taken by a US president toward removing criminal penalties for possessing marijuana. Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, marijuana is listed on Schedule 1, meaning it has no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse."
Schedule 1
That cannabis is listed as a schedule 1 substance is absurd, ludicrous, and ridiculous. It's beyond stupid. It makes the Controlled Substances Act into a laughing stock, to be held as an example of what happens when ignorance and corruption intersect. Since the 1970s, the US government has known without a doubt that cannabis has medical uses (like safely curing certain cancers). Cannabis shouldn't be listed in the Act at all, let alone in Schedule 1. Changing this is great, but what really needs to happen is an independent inquiry to determine who is responsible for putting cannabis in Schedule 1 in the first place. And who helped keep it there so long! Doing so has done irreparable damage to millions of individuals, and to society as a whole, and is one of the greatest examples of a crime against humanity ever perpetrated.
To say this change should have happened long ago is a monumental understatement. It has needed doing for decades. That begs the question: Why now?
Then again, the sayings "better late than never" and "don't look a gift horse in the mouth" come to mind. And I'm absolutely thrilled peaceful innocent cannabis users will be walking free. That's a win for EVERYONE. I'm just disturbed we had to wait until today for it to happen. It was wrong, and that's finally starting to come to light.
Cannabis prohibition has been raging nearly a century in Canada and the USA, ruining countless lives, holding back industry, preventing medical advances, enabling big pharma and the war machine. I MUST applaud these changes, which are indeed in the right direction. True decriminalization - the end of bad prohibition laws - is the goal of every cannabis activist in the world. This has been my fight, for over 10 years now. I have lived and breathed this. Hearing these developments is a dream come true. Many of my fellow activists didn't live to see this day. I think of them as I learn of this big change in the USA, which will surely ripple around the world. Yes, the devil is in the details, but unlike Canada's "legalization", today's move really does appear to be a win for freedom.
I made a 47-minute documentary called "Legalization is a LIE" in 2019, and updated it in 2021. It has everything a person needs to know about Canada's "legalization" process, from a grassroots street level. I was there, and documented the whole scam.
So I watch with great interest (and some skepticism) as this process unfolds. I don't know why this is happening right now, but perhaps that will become clear in time.
Congratulations to everyone who has fought for cannabis to be removed from Schedule 1 for decades, to everyone in US prisons for peaceful cannabis "offenses", and to all cannabis activists worldwide, who fight to end destructive and ineffective cannabis prohibition laws. It's not over, but today we get to celebrate a small victory.
DRutter