The White House used April 20 to reiterate President Biden’s alleged belief that marijuana users should not be in jail. The date is significant, because marijuana advocates celebrate that date as an informal pot holiday and refer to it as an ideal one on which to imbibe. Asked about the president’s opinion, White House Press Secretary Jen Psake expanded on Biden’s previous statements, saying, “The president continues to believe that no one should be in jail because of drug use.”
During the presidential primary debates, candidate Biden offered an unequivocal approach. “Nobody should be in jail for a non-violent crime,” he told a Houston audience – though Politico was quick to add, carrying water for the man even before his election, that “he appeared to be referring to serving time for non-violent drug offenses rather than suggesting that white-collar criminals should, too, serve no jail time for their crimes.” After a half-century of waging a “war on drugs,” some common sense might be injected into federal law enforcement.
But Joe Biden was really just looking for approval from a left-wing audience as a way to secure his party’s nomination. On the issue of criminal-justice reform, he simply cannot be trusted. As a U.S. senator, Biden championed the drug war and was a principal architect of the infamous and controversial 1994 crime bill, which has put plenty of people in prison “because of drug use.”
There is no indication that President Biden actually wants non-violent drug users to be left alone. His ideal solution is to have them confined to a drug-treatment facility. While some claim this is preferable to prison, it is still involuntary, it is still confinement – and it is of highly questionable value. What it demonstrates is not compassion but rather the authoritarian nature of the “progressive” mindset – in the form of a police state that forces a peaceful person into a white robe instead of white stripes. The idea that anyone whose actions haven’t violated the rights of another ought to be free to do as he pleases doesn’t fit in the “progressive” prospectus.
A free society is defined by the ability of its people to conduct their peaceful affairs without interference from others. It is the sole purpose of government to protect people’s rights and otherwise leave them alone. That includes the right to make bad decisions – as long as they are peaceful. No one likes the idea of a spouse, child, friend, or neighbor descending into a destructive pit of addiction, but putting that person behind bars “for his own good” is precisely the thinking behind mountains of laws criminalizing the behavior of otherwise law-abiding people. Jails are full, and the civil liberties of the American people have been undermined beyond belief, including longstanding constitutional safeguards against unreasonable search and seizure, surveillance, and property confiscation. The people’s right of privacy, both personal and financial, has been severely violated. Federal, state, and local law-enforcement agencies waste resources rooting out and prosecuting “drug crimes,” often employing questionable “sources” to obtain evidence, while actual crimes – including violent crimes – are ignored.
“Number one, I think we should decriminalize marijuana, period,” Joe Biden said in 2019. In 2010, however, Biden, as the sitting vice president, repeated the silly and often-used claim that marijuana is a “gateway drug” to oppose legalization, which only guaranteed that more people would go to jail “because of drug use.” How that claim squares with a “continued belief” in the freedom to use drugs is hard to figure – except that with his favorable ratings in the toilet and his party facing annihilation in the upcoming midterm elections, the president is suddenly “getting religion.” Despite his supposedly strong and sincere view that “there are so many people who are in jail and shouldn’t be in jail,” it has taken him 15 months in office to start issuing pardons, and the Drug Enforcement Agency continues arresting people for non-violent, drug-related “crimes.” This is not a man of principle dedicated to righting wrongs and protecting people’s rights. Joe Biden is interested only in protecting Joe Biden and the Democratic Party.