President Joe Biden on Thursday issued a blanket pardon for Americans who have been convicted of simple marijuana possession and called on state governors to do the same from state-level marijuana law violators.
Biden also announced his intention to reschedule marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act, a major step toward decriminalizing the drug at the federal level.
The decision is an obvious attempt to swing voters, coming a little more than one month before midterm elections will decide whether Democrats retain control of the House and Senate for the final two years of his first presidential term.
The pardon may impact thousands of people who were convicted of simple possession of marijuana under federal law from 1992 to 2021, though it was not immediately clear how the blanket pardon would be enforced.
