In article <stj2jk$vllk$
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> Pot smokers are useless eater sheep.
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WASHINGTON — Federal marijuana inmates say they’re shocked that
President Biden’s mass-pardon for pot offenders doesn’t actually
help them — telling The Post that the historic clemency amounts
to a “rancid” pre-midterm elections stunt and a “slap in the
face” that fails to do what Biden promised as a candidate.
There are about 2,700 federal pot inmates, according to a recent
congressional estimate, but none will get out because Biden’s
pardon applies only to the roughly 6,500 people convicted
federally of simple possession, of whom none are in prison, and
to unknown thousands more convicted under local DC law.
Biden announced his mass pardon after Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John
Fetterman, a Democratic Senate candidate in a key race for
control of the upper chamber, last month urged him to embrace
pot reform ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections due to broad
public support — even though Biden has consistently opposed
legalizing the drug and even fired at least five White House
staffers last year for past pot use.
Although Fetterman, who is locked in a dogfight of a race
against TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, is a longtime advocate of
marijuana legalization, he pointed out that “Pennsylvanians
overwhelmingly support decriminalizing marijuana” — making it a
potential electoral boon to Democrats as economic woes including
high inflation aid Republican efforts to retake control of
Congress.
Donald Fugitt, 38, who has about 16 months left in prison for
dealing marijuana in Texas, said, “I’m still in shock because I
thought we were all going home” upon hearing about Biden’s mass
pardon.
Fugitt said inmates at his federal prison in Fort Worth “started
cheering for us in here for weed” until “the initial glee turned
into yet another let-down.”
“Biden fed us rancid hamburger and the media is celebrating as
if he served up filet mignon,” added Joseph Akers, 40, of
Philadelphia, whose 16 1/2-year sentence for taking part in a
marijuana dealing conspiracy is scheduled to end in 2031.
“Please President Biden, reunite us with our families so we can
be at the dinner table this holiday season! What would you do if
your children were in prison?” he added — without directly
noting both of Biden’s adult children abused cocaine, or that
Delaware’s US attorney reportedly may soon charge first son
Hunter Biden with tax fraud and gun-purchase crimes.
Biden wrote or advocated for some of the nation’s harshest drug
laws in the 1980s and ’90s — sending some pot dealers away for
life without parole — before he pivoted in 2019 to fend off
younger rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.
On a primary debate stage three years ago, Biden said, “I think
we should decriminalize marijuana, period. And I think everyone
— anyone who has a record — should be let out of jail, their
records expunged, be completely zeroed out.”
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s
request for comment on whether Biden intends to order the
release of people currently in prison for marijuana, but in the
past has said he sticks to his campaign commitment.
Biden’s Thursday announcement didn’t win universal acclaim and
skeptics questioned whether it was just an attempt to ride the
cannabis reform bandwagon and gin up support among younger
voters after 19 states legalized recreational pot in the past
decade.
About 68% of Americans including half of Republicans support pot
legalization, according to a Gallup poll last year, and voters
in five states — Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and
South Dakota — will decide on pot legalization next month,
potentially boosting young adult turnout.
Marijuana activist and journalist Tom Angell tweeted Thursday,
“It’s disappointing — though not surprising, I suppose — that
Joe Biden’s move to pardon people for marijuana did not come
with a personal apology for the decades he spent as a senator
fighting successfully to ramp up the racist war on drugs.”
Amy Povah, founder of the CAN-DO Foundation, which advocates for
clemency for non-violent offenders, told The Post, “I’m elated
for [Biden’s] pardon recipients,” but “I can’t wait for those
who are currently incarcerated and have survived a historic
pandemic under tortuous conditions to get the relief they were
promised, as well.”
Biden’s Thursday announcement included orders for the federal
bureaucracy to reconsider marijuana’s longstanding
categorization as a Schedule I drug. That review could ease
research of the drug’s medical properties and potentially lead
to the legalization of interstate businesses.
But Biden’s pot actions were still a bitter pill for inmates
currently in federal prison and their families.
Daniel Longoria, 56, who is set to be released in 2040 after
completing a sentence for distributing marijuana in Texas, said,
“This long awaited news does not free anyone. It is hard to
digest this when you’re a first-time offender with non violent
history serving a 30-year sentence for cannabis.”
His brother Travis Longoria said, “people are making mega-bucks
selling cannabis on every corner and it was an essential
business during the pandemic! When will it be our turn to re-
enter society and given some mercy?”
Cornelius Berry, 46, said he thought Biden’s pot clemency was
“good news” and a step “in the right direction,” but also that
“it’s a slap in the face for those of us in prison because Biden
words when campaigning were no one should be in prison for
marijuana.
“I am a nonviolent offender still sitting here with 188 months
for something that is legal in a lot of states and is projected
to hit $32 billion in sales this year,” said Berry, whose 15-
year sentence for pot distribution in Texas is scheduled to end
in 2029.
Some federal inmates have life sentences, meaning they may never
get out without clemency — including Pedro Moreno, 62, who
distributed marijuana imported from Mexico from 1986 to 1996.
Moreno’s daughter, Alejandra Lopez, who is pregnant with her
third child, said, “My kids are growing up without a grandpa.
Please, President Biden, we are begging you to expand your
mercy.”
Although none of the roughly 6,500 federal pot-possession
convicts benefiting from Biden’s clemency are in prison, pardons
can ease negative consequences of convictions on housing,
employment and student financial aid. It’s rare for people to be
charged federally with simple pot possession and many of the
people are believed to have been busted at the US border with
small amounts of the drug.
It’s possible that federal pot convicts ultimately will get out
of prison through legislation. Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) is leading
a bipartisan effort that would release the roughly 2,700 federal
marijuana inmates.
On his last day in office, Republican President Donald Trump
last year released seven people serving life terms for marijuana
— including two men who were given life without parole under the
three-strikes provision of Biden’s 1994 crime law.
Michael Pelletier, a 66-year-old wheelchair-bound paraplegic
released by Trump, told The Post this year, “It breaks my heart
knowing there are still people serving life without parole for
cannabis. I hope Biden will free all pot prisoners because I
personally know several people who voted for him based on that
campaign promise alone.”
https://nypost.com/2022/10/07/biden-mass-pardon-for-pot-
offenders-called-election-ruse-slap-in-the-face/