He can do whatever the fuck he wants.
Could President Biden fully legalize cannabis before he leaves office?
Submitted 3 months ago by snausagesinablanket@lemmy.world to nostupidquestions@lemmy.world
Comments
cabron_offsets@lemmy.world 3 months ago
IphtashuFitz@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Just as long as he declares it “an official act”. I think he just has to say that. It doesn’t have to be written down or anything. And it doesn’t matter if anybody actually hears him say it, as long as he does.
Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world 3 months ago
It could be a cheesey quip, like the shit the good guys say in actio films when they kill the bad guys.
“'Consider this an official act… of kickin your ass!”
jaybone@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I see Homer Simpson running around doing stupid shit yelling “official act!” repeatedly.
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I’d like to see some “official” guillotines.
dQw4w9WgXcQ@lemm.ee 3 months ago
It’s like that scene from The Office where Michael declared bankrupcy by exclaiming it loudly and clearly in the office space.
Except in this case, it’s exactly how it works.
JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Qualified immunity!
AA5B@lemmy.world 3 months ago
No, that’s what police use to blast away with impunity. The Supremes ruled the President has “absolute immunity”
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
You might like this fun article in The Atlantic from a week ago: Congress Accidentally Legalized Weed Six Years Ago
Here’s an archive.is link for those who prefer it.
can@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
The upshot is that although recreational marijuana use is allowed in only 24 states and Washington, D.C., people anywhere in the U.S. can get intoxicated on hemp-derived THC without breaking federal law. These hemp-based highs are every bit as potent as those derived from the marijuana available in legalization states. I know this because I’ve tried recreational pot in California and Colorado, as well as 11 different hemp-derived intoxicants legally available here in North Carolina. I am not exaggerating when I say that they are indistinguishable in effect. In other words, six years ago, Congress inadvertently legalized weed across the entire United States.
I have to try it now to actually compare.
Chozo@fedia.io 3 months ago
These hemp-based highs are every bit as potent as those derived from the marijuana available in legalization states.
How I know the author hasn't tried either product.
Today@lemmy.world 3 months ago
I use eight horses hemp, flow gardens, hoku seed company, holy city hemp, and there are plenty more. I’m in Texas. I have a subscription from hoku that send an ounce to my mailbox every month.
candle_lighter@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
I would recommend THCA over any other legal high because it’s just converts to THC when cooked or burned and is literally just normal weed
ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
My understanding is the president cannot fully legalize cannabis on their own. Best thing they can do is stop enforcement at the federal level, but the president can’t stop states from continuing to enforce it at the state level.
BobGnarley@lemm.ee 3 months ago
You’re telling me a president can’t sign an executive order to deschedule marijuana? I think you’re mistaken.
ImplyingImplications@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
The president can do that, but states are still allowed to have their own drug laws. States can’t make something illegal if there is a federal law saying it’s legal. States can make something illegal if there is no federal law regarding it. It’s why states can make abortion laws since there’s no federal abortion law.
Descheduling cannabis is essentially the same thing as having no federal law and letting the states decide. It’s not the same as legalization.
litchralee@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
It’s a straightforward question with a not-so-straightforward answer. I’m not any sort of lawyer, but I will borrow the classic lawyer answer of: “It Depends”.
To start, the question of legalizing cannabis – meaning its sale, distribution, and consumption is as easy as for any other good – is distinct from the question of decriminalizing cannabis, which means it’s not a criminal offense to grow, sell, or consume.
Right off the bat, we can say that the US President cannot fully legalize cannabis nationwide with the stroke of a pen, because the several states can (and already do?) have their own laws and regulations on cannabis and other drugs, parallel to the federal laws. But decriminalization is feasible, since the federal statues that criminalize cannabis are based on the drug schedules, which are regulations issued by DEA pursuant to authority granted by Congress.
Of course, the several states could start writing their own laws to criminalize cannabis, but that would be kinda weird since the majority of states already allow medical marijuana, and a fair number allow recreational marijuana. So criminalizing cannabis would repeal those rather popular laws.
So we move to how the DEA can amend the drug schedules, or how the US President can instruct the DEA Administrator. Because Congress is the grantor of such authority to the DEA and other executive agencies, and seeking to prevent regulations from whimsically flip-flopping with the passing breeze, Congress introduced the Administrative Procedures Act (APA) in 1946.
As the name suggests, the Act sets up the rules for how regulations issued by agencies shall be performed. Most of the rules mirror those of Congressional procedure, meaning that the agency must conduct hearings on proposed rule changes openly, with the opportunity for the public to submit comments. That is, regulations suddenly appearing from behind closed doors is not permitted.
Part of the rules require fixed timelines, such as a number of days for sending in comments, plus a number of days for publishing the full text of the proposed rule into the Federal Register, before the rule can become active.
Furthermore, the Act instructs the judiciary to review regulations if someone raises a challenge to the adopted regulation. Among the things the judiciary will look at is whether the regulation is improperly “arbitrary and capricious”, meaning the regulation was pretextual and is instead serving a goal outside of what Congress intended for the agency to be doing.
If the US President issued a brief executive to remove cannabis from the drug schedules, thus shortcutting the rulemaking procedure and the period for public comment, a court challenge could arise where someone claims the regulation is arbitrary and capricious, since Congress would have expected the DEA to do a full, extensive job of considering the implications of drug availability. If the executive order does not do a similarly extensive consideration of what the DEA staff would do, then the court challenge would stand a decent chance. To be clear, the regulation via executive order would be strict down on procedural grounds, per the APA.
What if instead, the US President sternly instructs the DEA Administrator to immediately consider descheduling cannabis? This is more likely to withstand challenge, since the DEA staff would go through their normal evaluation procedure, even if it’s at an expedited rate. Thoroughness is one way to avoid being struck for arbitrary-and-capriciousness.
But there’s still a wrinkle, due to the recent demise of Chevron Deference, a doctrine where federal courts generally defer to the subject-matter experts within an executive agency, if the enabling law was silent, so long as the APA’s other requirements were met. This leads to the weird possibility that a federal judge – who is unlikely to be well-versed in drug and social implications – can substitute the learned opinion of doctors and scientists within DEA with their own judicial opinion. If this sounds similar to the very arbitrary-and-capricious issue from earlier, you’d be right: a single person – in the judiciary, no less – writing regulations for drug policy is hardly what Congress intended in authoring the Controlled Substance Act in the 70s.
The overall answer is that the US President has significant away over the DEA Administrator and can expedite the rulemaking process to deschedule cannabis, thus decriminalizing it at the federal level. And that matters because most drug defendants are prosecuted under federal law. But even an un-expedited rulemaking process would attract legal challenges like flies to flypaper, slowing down when the regulation comes into force. And if a federal judge decides to do so, they can outright cancel the descheduling regulation, choosing to not defer to the DEA, even if the DEA articulated their reasoning well.
It really depends.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
about the gif: i think a lot of the reason to legalize medical as a stepping stone is to show how stupid prohibition really is.
Agent641@lemmy.world 3 months ago
President Blazin’
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
Yep, but I’m not expecting him to.
bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 3 months ago
Yes. It can be made decriminalized by executive order, since it’s based on the list of schedule 1 narcotics. He could have done it on day 1. One has to infer he thinks it should remain illegal. Bernie said during his primary runs that he would have done it on day 1 if he’d been elected.
Coelacanth@feddit.nu 3 months ago
There is a separate timeline out there where Bernie beat Trump in 2016 and we didn’t have to go through any of this shit. I hope the me in that timeline realizes how lucky he is.
andyburke@fedia.io 3 months ago
He does not.
As wild as this timeline is, let's remember it could be worse. Vote. Care for your friends and family. Keep trying to make the world a little better.
Chainweasel@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Trump also could have won in 2020 and we’d already be living in the dictatorship with no prospect of an election this November, so does the “you” in this time realize how lucky you are?
ricecake@sh.itjust.works 3 months ago
No, the president doesn’t have that power.
crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10655
Image
norml.org/…/crs-report-president-lacks-constituti…
The president does not have the authority to unilaterally change drug classifications, only to nominate a DEA director who will engage in the defined process for changing the schedule of the the substance.
justice.gov/…/justice-department-submits-proposed…
Which is what’s happened.
The president doesn’t have the power to change the law.
someguy3@lemmy.world 3 months ago
PSA: decriminalization is not legalization.
magnetosphere@fedia.io 3 months ago
Well, you have to take into account that Biden has been looking to be re-elected for a second term. It’ll be interesting to see how he handles things now that he doesn’t have that concern. I’m looking forward to it, actually.
Lemmeenym@lemm.ee 3 months ago
I doubt he’ll do anything much different before the election. Harris is going to try to run, at least in part, on the current administration’s record so Biden actions will be constrained by the fear of hurting her campaign.
Plastic_Ramses@lemmy.world 3 months ago
Yeah… this is pretty much entirely wrong.