During the 2020 presidential campaign, then-candidate Joe Biden repeatedly pledged to decriminalize marijuana and automatically expunge marijuana records – identifying these issues as barriers to racial equity.
As we lead into the 2024 election, President Biden still hasn’t fulfilled that promise. Instead, Biden is pushing watered down marijuana reform and nice-sounding rhetoric in hopes of reaching more voters, particularly Black, Latinx and young voters. 67% of young voters are dissatisfied with the candidates in the upcoming presidential election according to CNN, and nearly 1 in 5 Black voters who voted for Biden in 2020 say they are uncertain about him in 2024, according to a Washington Ipsos poll. These same voting blocs overwhelmingly support marijuana legalization.
