President Joe Biden speaks to members of the media on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., before his departure to Poughkeepsie, New York, on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022. - Yuri Gripas/Abaca Press/TNS
For a president in his late 70s, Joe Biden has been surprisingly forward-looking in many of his policy priorities, including the climate change-combating Inflation Reduction Act and action on the student debt crisis. One area where Biden had remained stubbornly rooted in the 1990s, though, was cannabis policy, with a noncommittal approach to decriminalization at odds with earlier campaign promises and little substantive action on the issue in over a year of helming the federal government. That changed last week, as Biden issued a proclamation pardoning federal convictions for marijuana possess...
