Republican Rep. Nancy Mace (S.C.) praised President Biden’s decision to pardon all those convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law on Thursday, claiming that she was giving the White House “credit where credit is due.”
On Thursday, Biden said that he was taking executive action to offer pardons to anyone convicted of simple marijuana possession on the federal level in all fifty states and in the District of Columbia.
According to senior administration officials, the federal pardons will affect roughly 6,500 persons previously convicted of the crime on the federal level
The memo also invites governors across the country to take similar steps in their respective states and directs the secretary of Health and Human Services and the attorney general to try and evaluate how marijuana is classified under federal law.
“This is a multibillion-dollar industry that needs regulation, that needs to … have some guardrails to ensure that we’re not selling marijuana or cannabis to kids and our youth, and to ensure that also those that need it for medical reasons, like our veterans that have PTSD when they come home from war, can get medical care that isn’t going to get them addicted to very dangerous opioids, and we have an opioid crisis in our country,” Mace said while praising Biden’s unorthodox move on drug policy.
Biden’s move was widely praised across social media, receiving plaudits from both Republicans and Democrats.
In April, the House passed legislation legalizing marijuana across the country and removing criminal penalties for anyone who distributed or possessed the substance. A measure she had previously voted against.
Mace has since unveiled her own bill designed to legalize Cannibas. Her proposal, entitled The States Reform Act, would remove Marijuana from the list of schedule 1 drugs.
Nance has repeatedly been attacked by fellow Republicans for her sometimes unorthodox stances on various issues, as well as her penchant for attempting to work across the aisle with Congressional Democrats.
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