Biden's blanket pot pardon plan is better than Canada's approach, experts say
It was midterm election politics — and the need to energize voters aged 18 to 34 — that led U.S. President Joe Biden to announce pardons for all those convicted on federal charges of marijuana possession at the end of last week.
Unlike Canada — which legalized recreational cannabis use federally in 2018 — the U.S. still bans the plant for all purposes at the federal level.
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But there's one aspect of his announcement that many Canadian experts say was more progressive, effective and beneficial than the approach taken by the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — Biden's decision to proactively pardon those people he has the power to help.
"I think a more automatic approach that doesn't require any kind of lengthy application or red tape is definitely preferable to the system we have here," said Samantha McAleese, an adjunct research professor at Carleton University whose PhD thesis looked at the barriers faced by people with criminal records in Canada.
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/biden-cannabis-pardons-canada-trudeau-1.6612970