XPost: talk.politics.guns, alt.politics.elections, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: dead.pot.smokers@nytimes.com   
      
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   WASHINGTON — Federal marijuana inmates say they’re shocked that   
   President Biden’s mass-pardon for pot offenders doesn’t actually   
   help them — telling The Post that the historic clemency amounts   
   to a “rancid” pre-midterm elections stunt and a “slap in the   
   face” that fails to do what Biden promised as a candidate.   
      
   There are about 2,700 federal pot inmates, according to a recent   
   congressional estimate, but none will get out because Biden’s   
   pardon applies only to the roughly 6,500 people convicted   
   federally of simple possession, of whom none are in prison, and   
   to unknown thousands more convicted under local DC law.   
      
   Biden announced his mass pardon after Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John   
   Fetterman, a Democratic Senate candidate in a key race for   
   control of the upper chamber, last month urged him to embrace   
   pot reform ahead of the Nov. 8 midterm elections due to broad   
   public support — even though Biden has consistently opposed   
   legalizing the drug and even fired at least five White House   
   staffers last year for past pot use.   
      
   Although Fetterman, who is locked in a dogfight of a race   
   against TV personality Dr. Mehmet Oz, is a longtime advocate of   
   marijuana legalization, he pointed out that “Pennsylvanians   
   overwhelmingly support decriminalizing marijuana” — making it a   
   potential electoral boon to Democrats as economic woes including   
   high inflation aid Republican efforts to retake control of   
   Congress.   
      
   Donald Fugitt, 38, who has about 16 months left in prison for   
   dealing marijuana in Texas, said, “I’m still in shock because I   
   thought we were all going home” upon hearing about Biden’s mass   
   pardon.   
      
   Fugitt said inmates at his federal prison in Fort Worth “started   
   cheering for us in here for weed” until “the initial glee turned   
   into yet another let-down.”   
      
   “Biden fed us rancid hamburger and the media is celebrating as   
   if he served up filet mignon,” added Joseph Akers, 40, of   
   Philadelphia, whose 16 1/2-year sentence for taking part in a   
   marijuana dealing conspiracy is scheduled to end in 2031.   
      
   “Please President Biden, reunite us with our families so we can   
   be at the dinner table this holiday season! What would you do if   
   your children were in prison?” he added — without directly   
   noting both of Biden’s adult children abused cocaine, or that   
   Delaware’s US attorney reportedly may soon charge first son   
   Hunter Biden with tax fraud and gun-purchase crimes.   
      
   Biden wrote or advocated for some of the nation’s harshest drug   
   laws in the 1980s and ’90s — sending some pot dealers away for   
   life without parole — before he pivoted in 2019 to fend off   
   younger rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination.   
      
   On a primary debate stage three years ago, Biden said, “I think   
   we should decriminalize marijuana, period. And I think everyone   
   — anyone who has a record — should be let out of jail, their   
   records expunged, be completely zeroed out.”   
      
   The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s   
   request for comment on whether Biden intends to order the   
   release of people currently in prison for marijuana, but in the   
   past has said he sticks to his campaign commitment.   
      
   Biden’s Thursday announcement didn’t win universal acclaim and   
   skeptics questioned whether it was just an attempt to ride the   
   cannabis reform bandwagon and gin up support among younger   
   voters after 19 states legalized recreational pot in the past   
   decade.   
      
   About 68% of Americans including half of Republicans support pot   
   legalization, according to a Gallup poll last year, and voters   
   in five states — Arkansas, Maryland, Missouri, North Dakota and   
   South Dakota — will decide on pot legalization next month,   
   potentially boosting young adult turnout.   
      
   Marijuana activist and journalist Tom Angell tweeted Thursday,   
   “It’s disappointing — though not surprising, I suppose — that   
   Joe Biden’s move to pardon people for marijuana did not come   
   with a personal apology for the decades he spent as a senator   
   fighting successfully to ramp up the racist war on drugs.”   
      
      
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