Biden has pardoned all Americans who have been convicted at the national level of possessing small amounts of marijuana, in a move that advocates say was “long overdue”. The major decision could help pave the way for national marijuana legalisation.

Back in February 2021, Biden said that his administration would pursue cannabis decriminalisation and expungements for people with prior cannabis convictions.

It’s estimated that the pardon could benefit around 6,500 people with federal convictions for ‘simple possession’ of marijuana.

“Sending people to prison for possessing marijuana has upended too many lives and incarcerated people for conduct that many states no longer prohibit,” Biden said in a statement on Thursday afternoon. He criticised former governments’ hardline approach to drugs policy, calling it a “failed approach”.

He went on to acknowledge that Black and brown people are disproportionately prosecuted for possessing marijuana. “Criminal records for marijuana possession have also imposed needless barriers to employment, housing and educational opportunities,” he said. “And while white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people have been arrested, prosecuted and convicted at disproportionate rates.”

Marijuana is legal for recreational or medical use in most US states, but still remains illegal at the federal level. Under federal law, marijuana is currently classified in schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act – putting the drug in the same schedule as heroin and LSD. “It makes no sense,” Biden tweeted. In a bid to address this, he’s issued a directive for the drug to be rescheduled under federal law.

Biden also said he was calling on state governors to pardon simple state marijuana possession offences. “Just as no one should be in a federal prison solely for possessing marijuana, no one should be in a local jail or state prison for that reason, either,” he said.