“We have pardoned tens of thousands of people with federal convictions for simple marijuana possession,” Vice President Kamala Harris bragged on Thursday. It was not the first time she had offered that estimate, which she also cited during an appearance in South Carolina last February and at a “roundtable conversation about marijuana reform” the following month.
Where did Harris get that number? From thin air, it seems. “While Harris said ‘tens of thousands’ have been pardoned under President Joe Biden’s October 2022 and December 2023 clemency proclamations,” Marijuana Moment noted in February, “the Justice Department estimates that roughly 13,000 people have been granted relief under the executive action.” And only a tiny percentage of those people have bothered (or managed) to obtain evidence of their pardons: This week the Justice Department reported that “the Office of the Pardon Attorney has issued 205 certificates of pardon” to people covered by Biden’s proclamations.
In October 2022, President Joe Biden announced pardons for people who had possessed marijuana in violation of 21 USC 844 or Section 48–904.01(d)(1) of the D.C. Code. That proclamation applied to “all current United States citizens and lawful permanent residents” who had “committed the offense of simple possession of marijuana” on or before October 6.
According to a count by the U.S. Sentencing Commission (USSC), about 7,500 citizens and 1,200 “resident/legal alien offenders” (only some of whom would be eligible for pardons) were convicted of marijuana possession under 21 USC 844 from FY 1992 through FY 2021. Those numbers include some people who also were convicted of other offenses.
That count did not include D.C. Code violations. “We estimate that over 6,500 people with prior federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana and thousands of such convictions under D.C. law could benefit from this relief,” a White House official said during a press background call on the day Biden announced the pardons.
Hellbound and Down 