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

The Home passes a protection spending invoice with out a provision to bar the marijuana testing of navy recruits, New York regulators problem extra authorized pot enterprise licenses, and extra. 

Marijuana Coverage

Home Passes Protection Spending Invoice with out Provision to Bar Marijuana Testing for Recruits. The Home has given remaining approval to the must-pass annual protection spending invoice however with out language that may have barred marijuana drug testing for recruits or these in search of an officer’s fee. That provision was included within the Home model of the invoice handed through the summer time. 

The Senate included language in its model of the invoice that may have mandated drug testing for recruits. Neither of these provisions made it into the model handed by the Home this week. 

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

Topic to subsection (a) of part 504 of chapter 31 of title 10, United States Code, the Secretary of the navy division involved might not require a person to undergo a check for hashish as a situation of enlistment of such particular person as a member, or the fee of such particular person as an officer, of an Armed Pressure.

No members tried to place the reform again in as an modification to the protection invoice earlier than the ultimate Home vote Wednesday. The invoice now goes to the Senate, after which it is going to head to the desk of President Biden if the higher chamber makes no adjustments to it. 

New York Regulators Concern 68 Marijuana Enterprise Licenses, however Hundreds Stay Pending. The state’s Hashish Management Board (CCB)  has issued 68 licenses for authorized marijuana companies, however nonetheless faces a backlog of greater than 3,000 functions. 

Throughout a CCB assembly on Tuesday, the board accredited two cultivator licenses, six microbusiness licenses, 15 retail licenses, 21 distributor licenses, and 24 processor licenses. 

Regulators mentioned they have been slow-rolling license issuance to keep away from oversaturating the market and famous that 261 licensed pot outlets are already open throughout the state. 

“The New York State hashish {industry} continues to set and exceed its benchmarks,” CCB Chair Tremaine Wright mentioned in a press release.”With 261 dispensaries open and greater than $900 million in retail gross sales up to now, we’re seeing the real-world impacts of our efforts to help entrepreneurs, create industry-leading jobs and to generate income for our communities.”

It took the state practically two years to file the primary authorized marijuana sale after it legalized it in March 2021, leaving a gap for a whole lot—if not hundreds—of illicit, unlicensed pot outlets to function till a crackdown starting final spring shuttered a lot of them. However now, regulators have issued greater than 1,400 marijuana permits this yr alone. Nonetheless, about 3,000 license functions acquired in December 2023 stay pending, with some candidates paying lease on stores that aren’t producing income pending licensing.

Hurt Discount

Drug Overdose Deaths Proceed Speedy Decline, CDC Studies. Drug overdose deaths have declined by 17 p.c over the previous 12-month interval, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) reported Tuesday. The most recent figures proceed a development of declining overdose that start earlier this yr after greater than 20 years of rising overdose deaths. 

The 17 p.c decline marks the biggest drop in overdose deaths ever and brings the general toll beneath 100 thousand for the primary time because the pandemic. 

The decline will not be uniform: Six states, primarily within the West, are nonetheless seeing overdose deaths rise, whereas among the states that suffered probably the most from the opioid disaster, comparable to Ohio, North Carolina, and West Virginia, have seen the most important drops in deadly ODs. 

Public well being officers and researchers see a number of causes for the decline, together with higher drug therapy, the broader availability of opioid upkeep medicines, broader entry to the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone, and a doable Chinese language crackdown on fentanyl precursor manufacturing. 

Pardons and Commutations

President Biden Proclaims Clemency for Practically 1,500 Individuals. The White Home launched this assertion on presidential pardons and clemencies Thursday:

“Right now, President Biden introduced that he’s granting clemency to almost 1,500 Individuals – probably the most ever in a single day – who’ve proven profitable rehabilitation and a powerful dedication to creating their communities safer. The President is commuting the sentences of near 1,500 people who have been positioned on dwelling confinement through the COVID-19 pandemic and who’ve efficiently reintegrated into their households and communities. He’s additionally pardoning 39 people who have been convicted of non-violent crimes. These actions signify the biggest single-day grant of clemency in fashionable historical past.

“Collectively, these actions construct on the President’s file of felony justice reform to assist reunite households, strengthen communities, and reintegrate people again into society. The President has issued extra sentence commutations at this level in his presidency than any of his latest predecessors on the identical level of their first phrases. He’s additionally the primary President ever to problem categorical pardons to people convicted of easy use and possession of marijuana, and to former LGBTQI+ service members convicted of personal conduct due to their sexual orientation. Within the coming weeks, the President will take extra steps to supply significant second possibilities and proceed to overview extra pardons and commutations.”

The White Home additionally famous that President Biden pardoned 39 folks for nonviolent felony offenses together with drug offenses in the present day, however that it isn’t the primary time. In April 2022, he granted three pardons and 75 commutations for varied 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 extra pardons and 16 commutations for folks sentenced for non-violent drug offenses.

In October 2022, Biden issued a full, full, and unconditional categorical pardon for the offense of easy possession of marijuana, and in December 2023, he expanded earlier aid for the offenses of easy possession of marijuana, tried easy possession of marijuana, or use of marijuana, no matter whether or not the person had been charged with or prosecuted for the offenses on or earlier than the date of the proclamation.