Ben & Jerry’s, The ACLU, And Other Groups Are Starting Campaigns To Ask Biden And Governors To Ease Marijuana Laws!

Three new campaigns are encouraging governors and the president to pardon people who are still in prison or have criminal records due to marijuana-related offenses. The campaigns are being led by advocacy organizations and the ice cream manufacturer Ben and Jerry’s.

One of the efforts, on which the ACLU and Ben and Jerry’s are collaborating, asks people to write a pre-written letter to their governor pleading with him or her to grant state-level relief to those who have been criminalized because of cannabis.

In an era when more and more states are legalizing marijuana, the campaign, timed to the unofficial marijuana holiday 4/20, aims to draw attention to the thousands of people who are still behind bars or who are still suffering the aftereffects of earlier convictions because of marijuana.

I’m writing to you as one of your constituents to ask you, if you haven’t already, to utilize your clemency authority to pardon persons who have been found guilty of marijuana possession in accordance with our state’s laws. Even though you do not have the exclusive power to award this clemency in our state, your influence is quite strong in order to demand and guarantee pardons. Please do something right now.

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It states that you have the power to eliminate racial inequities and structural unfairness in our criminal justice system by using clemency for the innumerable persons in our state who were adversely affected by historically discriminatory and strict marijuana rules in the past.

The letter mentions that President Joe Biden pardoned several people who had been convicted of federal marijuana possession convictions last year. The president also urged state governors, who prosecute the majority of cannabis cases, to take a similar stance with relief.

In the months following Biden’s announcement of clemency, some governors have taken action to pardon marijuana offenders.

In related news, The Pen to Right History, a new initiative from the Last Prisoner Project (LPP), was also unveiled on Monday. The campaign calls on the president and governors to commute the sentences of prisoners who committed non-violent marijuana offenses.

People who have loved ones who have been imprisoned due to cannabis use are encouraged to write to their governors and request that they take the pen that they all used to write to those who were imprisoned and offer relief to others.

A video with Richeda Ashmeade, whose father received a 22-year prison term for marijuana possession, was made by LPP for the campaign. It focuses on both the injustice of the sentence and the unintended repercussions of his confinement that affected his family.

According to LPP Executive Director Sarah Gersten, the majority of Americans support this idea. However, thousands of people continue to serve prison sentences despite the fact that numerous states have decriminalized marijuana possession.

According to her, their release would be both a moral victory that would provide individuals wrongfully imprisoned a second chance and address the institutional racism that underlies many of these convictions. It would also be a practical victory.

The pardoning of federal convictions by President Biden last year was a step in the right direction, but only one. It’s time for the President and all of our governors to act morally and put an end to this epidemic that destroys families and is unjust and cruel.

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People are encouraged to ask their governors to take action to release marijuana inmates as part of a separate campaign that LPP is collaborating on with the Cannabis Voters Project.

Celebrities including Susana Sarandon, Chelsea Handler, Ilana Glazer, Daveed Diggs, and Montel Williams are supporting the cause.

In related news, a coalition of 85 civil rights and drug policy reform organizations addressed a letter to Biden and other important federal officials on Thursday, urging them to reschedule cannabis and support broad legalization legislation in light of the unofficial pot celebration known as 4/20.