Biden Issues 1500 Pardons and Commutations, Drug OD Decline Accelerates, More... (12/12/24)

The House passes a defense spending bill without a provision to bar the marijuana testing of military recruits, New York regulators issue more legal pot business licenses, and more. 

President Biden issued more than 1,500 clemencies and pardons today. (Creative Commons)

House Passes Defense Spending Bill without Provision to Bar Marijuana Testing for Recruits. The House has given final approval to the must-pass annual defense spending bill but without language that would have barred marijuana drug testing for recruits or those seeking an officer's commission. That provision was included in the House version of the bill passed during the summer. 

The Senate included language in its version of the bill that would have mandated drug testing for recruits. Neither of those provisions made it into the version passed by the House this week. 

The provision that would have barred marijuana testing reads as follows: "SEC. 531 PROHIBITION ON CANNABIS TESTING FOR ENLISTMENT OR COMMISSION IN CERTAIN ARMED FORCES.

Subject to subsection (a) of section 504 of chapter 31 of title 10, United States Code, the Secretary of the military department concerned may not require an individual to submit to a test for cannabis as a condition of enlistment of such individual as a member, or the commission of such individual as an officer, of an Armed Force.

No members attempted to put the reform back in as an amendment to the defense bill before the final House vote Wednesday. The bill now goes to the Senate, after which it will head to the desk of President Biden if the upper chamber makes no changes to it. 

New York Regulators Issue 68 Marijuana Business Licenses, but Thousands Remain Pending. The state's Cannabis Control Board (CCB)  has issued 68 licenses for legal marijuana businesses, but still faces a backlog of more than 3,000 applications. 

During a CCB meeting on Tuesday, the board approved two cultivator licenses, six microbusiness licenses, 15 retail licenses, 21 distributor licenses, and 24 processor licenses. 

Regulators said they were slow-rolling license issuance to avoid oversaturating the market and noted that 261 licensed pot shops are already open across the state. 

"The New York State cannabis industry continues to set and exceed its benchmarks," CCB Chair Tremaine Wright said in a statement."With 261 dispensaries open and more than $900 million in retail sales to date, we are seeing the real-world impacts of our efforts to support entrepreneurs, create industry-leading jobs and to generate revenue for our communities."

It took the state nearly two years to record the first legal marijuana sale after it legalized it in March 2021, leaving an opening for hundreds—if not thousands—of illicit, unlicensed pot shops to operate until a crackdown beginning last spring shuttered many of them. But now, regulators have issued more than 1,400 marijuana permits this year alone. Still, about 3,000 license applications received in December 2023 remain pending, with some applicants paying rent on retail outlets that are not generating revenue pending licensing.

Harm Reduction

Drug Overdose Deaths Continue Rapid Decline, CDC Reports. Drug overdose deaths have declined by 17 percent over the preceding 12-month period, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Tuesday. The latest figures continue a trend of declining overdose that begin earlier this year after more than two decades of rising overdose deaths. 

The 17 percent decline marks the largest drop in overdose deaths ever and brings the overall toll under a hundred thousand for the first time since the pandemic. 

The decline is not uniform: Six states, mainly in the West, are still seeing overdose deaths rise, while some of the states that suffered the most from the opioid crisis, such as Ohio, North Carolina, and West Virginia, have seen the biggest drops in fatal ODs. 

Public health officials and researchers see multiple causes for the decline, including better drug treatment, the wider availability of opioid maintenance medications, broader access to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, and a possible Chinese crackdown on fentanyl precursor production. 

Pardons and Commutations

President Biden Announces Clemency for Nearly 1,500 Americans. The White House released this statement on presidential pardons and clemencies Thursday:

"Today, President Biden announced that he is granting clemency to nearly 1,500 Americans – the most ever in a single day – who have shown successful rehabilitation and a strong commitment to making their communities safer. The President is commuting the sentences of close to 1,500 individuals who were placed on home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic and who have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities. He is also pardoning 39 individuals who were convicted of non-violent crimes. These actions represent the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.

"Together, these actions build on the President’s record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society. The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms. He is also the first President ever to issue categorical pardons to individuals convicted of simple use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of private conduct because of their sexual orientation. In the coming weeks, the President will take additional steps to provide meaningful second chances and continue to review additional pardons and commutations."

The White House also noted that President Biden pardoned 39 people for nonviolent criminal offenses including drug offenses today, but that it is not the first time. In April 2022, he granted three pardons and 75 commutations for various drug offenses; in December 2022, he granted six pardons for drug- and alcohol-related offenses; in April 2023, he granted 31 commutations; in December 2023 and April 2024, he granted 11 more pardons and 16 commutations for people sentenced for non-violent drug offenses.

In October 2022, Biden issued a full, complete, and unconditional categorical pardon for the offense of simple possession of marijuana, and in December 2023, he expanded earlier relief for the offenses of simple possession of marijuana, attempted simple possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana, regardless of whether the individual had been charged with or prosecuted for the offenses on or before the date of the proclamation.