Pro-cannabis students react to new pardons

USC students and pro-cannabis groups on campus are hopeful for a renewed perspective on marijuana after President Joe Biden promised to fix the country’s “failed approach” toward the drug.

On Oct. 6, President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of simple marijuana possession. The president released a series of Twitter statements justifying the decision and called on local and federal officials to review marijuana-related policies, such as the classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug. 

“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana,” Biden wrote in a Twitter post following the pardons. “Today I announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana, urged governors to do the same, and asked HHS and the DOJ to review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.”

Biden pardoned prior federal offenders on the basis that people convicted of such offenses may be denied employment, housing or education.

Marijuana advocates at USC applauded Biden’s efforts while pushing for increased tolerance of the drug. Christophe Merriam, a freshman majoring in business of cinematic arts, said he believes the legalization of marijuana is long overdue.

“Nobody is dying from marijuana, and marijuana isn’t a health crisis,” Merriam said. “If you’re really gonna be like, ‘It makes a person lazy or act stupid,’ you can easily say the same thing about drinking, but drinking is so normal and socially acceptable, so that’s just ridiculous.”

Arguments against cannabis originate from a history of skepticism from the scientific and broader community, said Julianna Montano, president of Cannabis at USC and a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law and pharmacology and drug development.

“It’s not fully embraced by the scientific community because it’s really hard to parse data and research that’s out there,” Montano said. “So the stigma is definitely still very strong even though there are a lot of legislative measures that push through.”

If federal legislation legalizing marijuana passes, it will open the floodgates to business, health and science opportunities. Montano said she aims to educate the USC community about the benefits of cannabis while providing club members with opportunities in the growing industry. 

“Cannabis at USC is not only an opportunity for students to speak with like-minded people, be a part of the dialogue or understand cannabis from deeper than a surface level,” Montano said. “But also to understand the inner workings of operation, supply chain and the growing economy behind this plant as it continues to be legalized for both medical and recreational use throughout the nation.”

The United States House of Representatives passed a bill in April that would nationally decriminalize cannabis. If the legislation becomes law, it will remove marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act, legalizing the manufacture, distribution and possession of the drug.

An increasing number of states are taking local measures to legalize the drug medically and recreationally. In the past 20 years, more than half of the states in the U.S. have legalized weed for medical use. 19 of those states also allow the recreational use of marijuana.

“This is going to be a new era of therapeutics and medicine for people in the future, and people should be educated about it,” Montano said.

Advocates also aim to address the racial stigma surrounding marijuana consumption. During the 1900s, the U.S. government outlawed marijuana following an influx of immigration from Mexico. Prejudice against immigrants extended to marijuana, which immigrants introduced as a recreational drug.

“A lot of the laws surrounding cannabis were rooted in racism … it was just another reason to lock people up,” Merriam said. “A lot of it is rooted in falsehoods and misinformation.”

The government outlawed cannabis after conducting studies that linked violence and deviant behavior with marijuana consumption in non-white communities. The discriminatory investigations created a negative stigma based on racism that persists today.

According to a 2020 American Civil Liberties Union study, Black men are incarcerated nearly four times more often than white men for marijuana-related offenses, despite roughly equal usage rates. In some states, Black people are up to nine times more likely to be apprehended for cannabis possession.

“Most of the time, the reasons that weed has been criminalized has been based off systemic racism deeply rooted in the American government, so there’s no reason that it should be criminalized,” said Daniel Stone, a freshman majoring in business administration. “We all know that cannabis has been a systemic racism issue in America of criminalizing Black men.”

Decriminalization will address safety issues on multiple fronts, but will not be universally accepted. While lessening the potential for discriminatory arrests and allowing for research to make cannabis consumption safer, mass consumption may evoke backlash from opponents of recreational use.

“I could foresee [decriminalization] happening within the next 10 years just because there is a huge demand for it and a huge demand for access,” Montano said. “But I don’t exactly know what the steps will be towards that. I think opening up the floodgates will result in a lot of consequences, both socially and politically. But, you know, it kind of has to happen.”