The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in March that it was officially opening up an online portal to make it easier than ever for those who hold low-level cannabis convictions to apply for a pardon. Now the DOJ’s Office of the Pardon Attorney published a notice on July 18 stating that the deadline has been extended until August 15.

The Office of the Pardon Attorney wrote that it is submitting a request to extend pardon applications through 2026. “DOJ seeks PRA [Paperwork Reduction Act] authorization for this information collection for three (3) years,” it stated. “OMB [Office of Management and Budget] authorization for an ICR [Information Collection Request] cannot be for more than three (3) years without renewal. The DOJ notes that information collection requirements submitted to the OMB for existing ICRs receive a month-to-month extension while they undergo review.”

“The purpose of this collection is to gather information necessary to enable the Office of the Pardon Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice to expeditiously administer the provisions of the Executive Order 10467, a proclamation granting pardons to individuals charged or convicted of simple possession of marijuana,” the notice stated. “The collection will enable individuals to apply for certificates of pardon, restoring political, civil, and other rights by implementing a process to provide certificates of pardon as provided by the order.”

The DOJ expects 20,000 people to apply for a pardon and complete the necessary information, which includes personal information (name, mailing address, email address, and citizenship status) as well as individual docket and case number, the code section for the charge, copies of all relevant documents (such as indictments, complaints, or other conviction documents), and the date the sentence was imposed.

This pardon directive was enacted by President Joe Biden in October 2022. “As I’ve said before, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden tweeted. “Today, I’m taking steps to end our failed approach.”

The DOJ explained in March what makes a person eligible for a pardon. “Those who were pardoned on Oct. 6, 2022, are eligible for a certificate of pardon,” the DOJ wrote in a press release. “Consistent with the proclamation, to be eligible for a certificate, an applicant must have been charged or convicted of simple possession of marijuana in either a federal court or D.C. Superior Court, and the applicant must have been lawfully within the United States at the time of the offense.”

Following Biden’s pardon announcement, the U.S. Sentencing Commission announced that more than 1,450 people in Arizona with federal cannabis possession charges would be pardoned. The only state to receive more pardons is California, with 1,550 eligible people. However, the pardons do not affect those whose convictions include selling cannabis illegally.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are currently working on an eight-step federal cannabis scheduling review to determine if cannabis should be rescheduled under the Controlled Substances Act. However, there is no definitive deadline that marks when these agencies will complete the review. If or when it is finished however, it would be sent to the Drug Enforcement Administration for final decisions.

Recently, officials in multiple states, including Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Utah, sent data to the FDA regarding their medical cannabis programs with the intention of contributing to the review.
Federal rescheduling or descheduling cannabis could open up many opportunities for cannabis consumers and businesses. Just recently, cannabis businesses in Vermont were informed that they were not eligible for federal emergency aid, due to cannabis being a Schedule I substance, when powerful storms caused flooding throughout the state and harmed their businesses and livelihood.

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A group representing cannabis businesses and activists is calling on the governors of four western states to explore receiving federal approval for interstate trade in cannabis, a move that could help set the stage for the eventual national legalization of cannabis. 

In a letter posted online, the Alliance for Sensible Markets called on the governors of California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington to seek guidance from the U.S. Department of Justice on how the government would react if two or more states with legal medical or adult-use marijuana decided to regulate cannabis trade across their state lines. The letter notes that federal legalization of cannabis, which at this point seems inevitable, will present an economic opportunity to cannabis-producing states in the West.

“When the federal government legalizes cannabis, the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution guarantees that producers across our four states will have non-discriminatory access to every legal adult-use and medical market in the country,” the letter reads. “That will be worth billions of dollars per year to our states’ economies, increasing state revenues and spurring investment, expansion, business formation, and jobs and could, if it happens soon, save thousands of small farms and businesses from extinction.”

The Alliance for Sensible Markets is a Portland, Oregon-based coalition of cannabis activists and producers including the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Washington Sun and Craft Growers Association, the Weed for Warriors Project, and the Colorado Cannabis Manufacturers Association. Formed last year, the organization has two primary goals to achieve interstate cannabis commerce.

First, the group is working to bring two or more states with legal marijuana together to join in an interstate compact outlining the parameters for legal cannabis commerce between them. Secondly, a path to federal approval of the plan would have to be drafted and set into motion.

Interstate Commerce to Set the Stage for a National Cannabis Industry

Paired with a federal policy that would permit state-legal cannabis businesses to operate without interference, interstate cannabis commerce could be a more politically viable path to many of the goals of full legalization. Adam Smith, the founder and president of the Alliance for Sensible Markets, believes that interstate commerce in cannabis can connect consumers in newly legal markets with western cannabis producers, who have recently seen wholesale prices plummet.

“Thousands of small farms and businesses across the Pacific Northwest, in communities that have depended on the economics of cannabis for generations, face economic catastrophe as they choke on a glut of some of the world’s best and most efficiently produced cannabis,” Smith wrote in an email to High Times. “This is not an oversupply problem, it’s a market access problem. Meanwhile, millions of patients and consumers in legal states where cannabis is expensive and environmentally costly to grow will be stuck in illicit markets for years, and thousands of potential retail, distribution, delivery and other businesses will be stuck on the sidelines waiting for a steady but limited and overpriced supply chain to emerge in their states.”

The group maintains that the current system of regulated cannabis trade, with each state that has legalized marijuana operating its own contained market of production, manufacturing, distribution and sales, is unsustainable. By seeking guidance from the federal government now instead of waiting for national legalization, the coalition hopes to create a more sustainable cannabis industry that better serves the needs of all stakeholders.

“We believe that the simple act of asking the question will significantly advance the national conversation around the future of legal cannabis, and that positive guidance from DOJ will spur changes beneficial to both producer and consumer states, as well as to patients, consumers, public safety, social equity, small businesses and environmental sustainability in any legal or medical states that choose to regulate and engage in commerce in advance of federal legalization,” the letter concludes.

Smith says that California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, four states that were early pioneers in the cannabis legalization movement, are uniquely positioned to help shape national policy with federal regulators.

“Federal Legalization will open markets, but waiting for the federal government to ‘fix’ cannabis has never been a winning strategy,” Smith explained. “It has always been the states taking the lead on reform. Positive DOJ guidance will open the path to a more rational, just, and sustainable industry now, in states that choose to participate in commerce.”

The Alliance for Sensible Markets is currently encouraging additional cannabis consumers, businesses, and other interested parties to sign the letter and plan to deliver it to the four western governors next month.

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