Biden Commutes 2,500 Drug Offender Sentences

Biden Commutes 2,500 Drug Offender Sentences

Breaking news today, January 17 2025 – President Biden commutes 2,500 nonviolent drug offenders convicted of crack cocaine offenses. This is nearly the same number of marijuana prisoners that still sit behind bars waiting to see whether he will live up to his campaign promises to free them.

The Associated Press reported today that the most recent round of clemency gives President Biden the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued.

The Democrat said he is seeking to undo “disproportionately long sentences compared to the sentences they would receive today under current law, policy, and practice.”

“Today’s clemency action provides relief for individuals who received lengthy sentences based on discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes,” Biden said in a statement.

“This action is an important step toward righting historic wrongs, correcting sentencing disparities, and providing deserving individuals the opportunity to return to their families and communities after spending far too much time behind bars.”

On the campaign trail, President Biden said, “We should decriminalize marijuana…everyone should be let out of jail, their records expunged, be completely zeroed out.”

Since he took office, Students for Sensible Drug Policy has called on President Biden to keep his campaign promises to put an end to the harmful laws he enacted and start the healing process.

The New York Post also covered this breaking news, and quotes SSDP’s Executive Director, Kat Murti, in their article today…

“President Biden was one of the original architects of the War on Drugs, having authored nearly every significant federal crime bill in the 1980s and 1990s. He is personally responsible for the decades these individuals have spent behind bars — and for tearing apart families and decimating communities in the process,” said Kat Murti, executive director of Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

“Using his last few days in office to rectify this grave injustice is a major step in the right direction,” Murti said.

“Today’s announcement marks the biggest single-day act of clemency in American history, but there are still thousands of Americans serving long-term or even life sentences for cannabis-related charges and over 600 Americans are still arrested for marijuana every single day.”

Read the entire New York Post article here.

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