Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
Friendly reminder that literally all legalization legislation and referendums have come through the Democratic party.
Biden already pledged support. He needs youth vote. There's literally no reason he wouldn't unless he was blocked by Republicans...
... Which he is.
Then why is one of his campaign promises written as: "As president he will decriminalize cannabis..."
Is his campaign promising things he doesn't have the power to do?
Yes this is literally par for the course for every single presidential campaign in history.
They promise what they'll do. They don't say try to do because that's been tested in marketing and certainty sounds better. Nevertheless it's not Biden's fault his agenda for what he's been voted into office on is being blocked by the opposition for poor reasons.
The question isn't why isn't Biden doing this, the issue is why are Republicans blocking it and why aren't you trying to convince them and their supporters?
If I can't believe any of the good campaign promises from biden because everyone lies, why should we take the scary campaign promises of republicans seriously?
It really leads to apathy in the voter base.
I'm really struggling to understand how you don't understand how this works. I have to conclude you're doing this in bad faith, given you implied your age is pretty high.
Well, I don't have a study backing me up, but in my experience, promising what you can't deliver often results in being called a liar.
I really don't know why "other candidates do it" would be an excuse. The whole pitch for voting for him is that he is supposed to be better than the other candidates. Seems like whataboutism.
Friendly reminder that literally all legalization legislation and referendums have come through the Democratic party.
https://www.kiplinger.com/politics/red-states-embrace-marijuana-the-kiplinger-letter
Red states are poised to increasingly embrace weed. Ohio is the latest, becoming the 24th state to legalize marijuana for recreational use via a voter referendum. This follows successful efforts in the past two years in Montana and Missouri. Fourteen states have legalized marijuana for medical use only.
The legalization of cannabis in my state was brought about by activists, not Democratic Party members, and was passed by the public, which is made up of a majority of unaffiliated voters. Our Democratic governor vehemently opposed the measure. He did implement it when it passed, which Republican legislatures and governors have not done when similar bills were passed by the public in Republican states, though.
Curious of the state but I'm willing to bet money >90% of those activists were, conveniently, voting Democrats or of the Democratic coalition.
This is generally reflected in public polling: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2024/03/26/most-americans-favor-legalizing-marijuana-for-medical-recreational-use/#:~:text=62%25%20of%20conservative%20and%20moderate,Democrats%20(84%25)%20say%20this.
Finally, conservatives are starting to come around but they're always behind the curve.
Memory of a goldfish.
Friendly reminder that mass incarceration was a bipartisan effort going back 4 decades.
Democrats when Democrats don't use their powers to do what they promised: "Um akshully it has to pass congress and guess what all dem republicans are blocking the bills so really biden's hands are tied and it's your fault for not voting enough"
Also Democrats: "lmao lets shove thousands of bombs to Israel and run security defense exercises against the Houthis without congressional approval"
Meanwhile Republicans: "executive privilege and unconstitutional orders go brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr"
dude can't even say genocide is bad.
Biden has taken a very strong and outspoken position in opposition to certain instances of genocide.
But not the one he's currently supporting.
He pushed a recommendation for it to be rescheduled to the DEA like two years ago and they've been stonewalling?
Then why is one of his campaign promises written as: "As president he will decriminalize cannabis..."
Is his campaign promising things he doesn't have the power to do?
This is correct. The HHS recommended rescheduling, and the DEA hasn’t responded to the recommendation. They’re probably concerned it’ll affect their budget having fewer criminals to pursue.
This is the relevant bit from the article:
In late 2022, President Joe Biden issued an executive order directing HHS to review marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act, while giving a recommendation on whether it should be rescheduled. After a roughly year-long review, HHS sent a letter to the DEA in August requesting that they move marijuana to Schedule III.
They had their own review and recommended that Cannabis be moved from Schedule I(Drugs with no medicinal value and a high risk of harm/abuse - heroin,LSD,etc) to Schedule III(Drugs with low risk of harm/abuse and clear medicinal value - cough syrup,Ketamine,etc).
The Controlled Substances Act which established all our current drugs laws states that ONLY the DEA has the power to ultimately change the classification of any controlled substance. If the DEA does not feel inclined to change this, then nothing will happen with the recommendation. Biden can always play political hardball since the head of the agency is an appointed position, but it would still need to be confirmed by the Senate in the end.
I wouldn't expect to see a drop to schedule III, but I think in the next five or so year we may see it become schedule II. Progress is progress I guess.
Schedule III(Drugs with low risk of harm/abuse and clear medicinal value - cough syrup,Ketamine,etc).
The same cough syrup that contains codeine, an opiate and creates a very strong physical addiction? The same that killed Juice WRLD and Pimp C? The one that almost killed Lil Nas and Macklemore?
The fact that marijuana is right now considered as more harmful than this and should be lowered to this kind of level is just fucked up
It definitely needs to be decriminalized but that’ll actually take an act of Congress. Public pressure needs to be applied but let’s not pretend Biden can do this on his own
It definitely needs to be decriminalized but that’ll actually take an act of Congress
There's other ways to try, Biden just won't.
Although the President may not unilaterally deschedule or reschedule a controlled substance, he does possess a large degree of indirect influence over scheduling decisions. The President could pursue the appointment of agency officials who favor descheduling, or use executive orders to direct DEA, HHS, and FDA to consider administrative descheduling of marijuana. The notice-and-comment rulemaking process would take time, and would be subject to judicial review if challenged, but could be done consistently with the CSA’s procedural requirements. In the alternative, the President could work with Congress to pursue descheduling through an amendment to the CSA.
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/LSB/LSB10655
But the House passed a bill to deschedule in 2022, and Biden's whole deal in the last primary was how well he could get Republican senators on board with Dem legislation.
He couldn't.
But going back full circle:
Why did Biden promise to deschedule if there's no way he can deschedule?
To the full-circle thing, I'm not sure what the point is. There was no explicit deadline. Promises by politicians to assert their position have been used since forever. It doesn't change the fact there are obstructions to their good intentions. If I promise something and someone blocks me from viably pursuing it, that's not on me, that's on them: Republicans.
And if they approach it the wrong way, as quoted material suggests, it risks being thrown out by the conservative court making future attempts possibly more difficult.
If I promise something and someone blocks me from viably pursuing it, that's not on me, that's on them: Republicans.
If I promise my kid a trip to their favorite amusement park and then don't get the big bonus I expected from work to afford it, it's not my jobs fault the kid didn't go to the park. It's my fault for making a promise and not finding a way to follow through.
This is the reality of the situation.