INDIANAPOLIS — President Joe Biden is taking action to help those convicted federally of simple marijuana possession, announcing Thursday he would be erasing prior convictions through pardons.
It's a major step toward decriminalizing marijuana at the federal level.
Nationwide, the political landscape is ever-changing on marijuana use and possession as more states pass laws to expand access. As of today, 19 states allow it for recreational use.
In Indiana, marijuana is still illegal.
Now, Biden is calling on the remaining states where simple marijuana possession is illegal to make similar changes in pardoning previous offenses.
"There are thousands of people who are convicted for marijuana possession who may be denied employment, housing or educational opportunities as a result of that conviction. My pardon will remove this burden on them," President Biden said.
A senior member of the president's administration said they believe more than 6,500 federal convictions will be pardoned as a result of Thursday's action.
Locally, attorneys estimate most Hoosiers won't feel an impact from these pardons.
"This is not a huge number of people who have simple possession convictions in federal court, but there is a substantial number, several thousand," said Ross Thomas, a criminal defense attorney in Indianapolis and member of the legal committee for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
Thomas said Biden's action is a major step toward loosening federal classifications of the drug, although these pardons won't impact that many Hoosiers.
"I had a case once in the VA parking lot of the Veteran's Administration which is federal land. So that person, instead of having a misdemeanor in state court, he was hauled into federal court. And a similar case up in the Indiana Dunes National Park," Thomas said.
State arrests and convictions on the state level in Indiana are far more common, according to Thomas. Under Indiana law, you can face jail time and hefty fines for possession. It's why Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said his office stopped prosecuting simple marijuana possession years earlier, impacting thousands in Marion County.
"At the time that we made the decision to no longer prosecute these cases, we had 350 pending criminal cases and that was just a snapshot of one moment in time. Just in Marion County alone, thousands of people were arrested and charged for possession of marijuana each year. So when you extrapolate that out around the state, we're talking tens of thousands of people who could ultimately receive that benefit," said Mears.
Along with the federal pardons, Biden called on governors nationwide to do the same in pardoning simple marijuana convictions.
But first, Indiana would need to stop arresting and convicting people on those charges. Mears said Black and brown people in the community are charged with marijuana possession more often and more severely than their white counterparts. And those charges will create negative consequences for them years down the road.
“Unfortunately, we encounter people every day in our community who are being held back by prior conviction related to marijuana," Mears said. "The collateral consequences really impact people’s ability to get financial aid in particular on student loans, it sometimes serves as an impediment to people getting into housing. And it’s got a long history of keeping people from either being employed or underemployed.”
Those who are convicted of simple marijuana possession in Indiana can often seek to get those records expunged, but it's a lengthy process and often an option many Hoosiers don't know they have in the courts. It's why Mears and Thomas agree seeing the state take action on pardons could greatly benefit people around Indiana.
“Something like this, where it’s automatic, where people don’t have to take those steps, it’s a tremendous opportunity for a lot of people," Mears said. "The expungement is a great tool, but access to justice is a real problem for a lot of people because it’s difficult for those people to get into the courtroom because they don’t know what’s expected of them and they don’t have the resources to file the appropriate paperwork."
And following the federal presidential pardons, Thomas said he'd like to see Indiana take steps to catch up with its neighbors in terms of marijuana regulations and use.
“Indiana is behind the curve on this. All the states around us in some manner or another have decriminalized marijuana or hemp and we are losing tax dollars to all of those states that have legalized or decriminalized marijuana. It’s simply time to change that. And I hope that the president’s action today and his words to the governor and to all the governors to follow that lead and lets go down a different track on how we’re going to deal with marijuana,” Thomas said.
As Hoosiers watch and wait to see how Indiana leaders handle next steps for marijuana convictions around the state, Mears said he's hopeful this will open the door for the state to shift resources away from marijuana, focusing on violent crime convictions instead.
"We don't want to see people in jail because of marijuana," Mears said. "It doesn't make our community safer and it doesn't make our community more fair."
13News also reached out to Prosecutor Mears' opponent, Cyndi Carrasco. She sent us a statement saying "Many Americans are in favor of legalizing marijuana and oppose penalizing people for simple use and possession. It's up to Congress and state legislatures to make any further changes they see fit. I look forward to these conversations."
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita issued the following statement late Thursday:
“Joe Biden’s values are some of the worst things to be perpetrated on the youth of this state and nation – and that is saying something, given Hollywood and the fake press destroying our values and culture daily. He teaches that you need not be accountable for your commitments (loan abandonment), that you can deny and hide things (like your gender) from your parents, and now – breaking the law simply doesn’t matter. Besides that, drugs, including marijuana, are terribly dangerous, especially to our children. Disgusting people are competing for their souls all for the sake of lining their drug-laden pockets. Marijuana is a gateway for all of this. Biden, as an old man, should know better.”