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A comment on Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of or Use of Marijuana. Parent comment

Re:Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of o... by zdragnar on Friday December 22, 2023 @03:54PM (#38738558)
The problem with blaming Congress is that the harms could be easily mitigated by the DEA changing the scheduling, which was my point.

Rumor has it that is in the works, but the fact that it has taken so long starts and ends with the executive office.

That said, Congress decriminalizing it entirely is definitely something that is going to take too long, and will also be entirely the fault of Congress.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of o... by ethanbond on Friday December 22, 2023 @04:24PM (#38738845)
DEA rescheduling would be the "executive fiat" and is more undo-able than pardons.

The DEA is entirely under the control of the executive. So if you want a more permanent solution, the only one is legislative, and that is extremely unlikely to happen even if there were extremely broad public support.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of o... by natebc on Friday December 22, 2023 @04:51PM (#38739090)
If we can get 2/3 of the state legislatures to agree, and 3/4 of them to ratify we can amend the constitution without Congress via a Constitutional Convention.

Still long odds but we technically don't HAVE to do it with Congress.

https://www.archives.gov/federal-register/constitution/artic...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of o... by ethanbond on Friday December 22, 2023 @04:58PM (#38739160)
Unfortunately the people closest to achieving this are openly wannabe theocrats
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of o... by BobaFloutist on Friday December 22, 2023 @05:49PM (#38739501)
If we could do that, then we'd have an easy congressional majority to do it through congress.

Constitutional amendment is far harder than congressional legislation.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Granting Pardon for the Offense of Simple Possession of o... by zdragnar on Friday December 22, 2023 @04:37PM (#38738968)
As I said, I don't mind the pardon for those already affected... the problem is it doesn't do anything for someone who is charged tomorrow.

Rescheduling buys more time, and unlike other executive orders, is actually in line with the intent of Congress via the controlled substances act.

[ Parent | on HN ]