BIDEN'S WEED PARDONS CHANGE NOTHING! Thinking Out Loud

1 year ago
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In this episode of his "Thinking Out Loud" series, Double D discusses Biden's recent announcement that he will be "pardoning" those convicted on a federal level for small amounts of marijuana possession.
Double D opens the video by reading excerpts from a "Slate" article, which outlines the specifics of Biden's marijuana pardons. Double D points out that Biden's pardons release no prisoners in the War on Drugs, rather, Biden's pardons do nothing more than "expunge" the record of 6,500 people who had already served their time for possession. He points out as well, that the move does nothing meaningful to reschedule the controlled substance, and suggests that the pardons amount to nothing more than hot air rhetoric leading up to the midterms.
Going on, Double D ruminates on the culture of paranoia and mass incarceration created by cannabis being relegated to the war on drugs. He cites the article in pointing out that cannabis convictions reached their height in 2008, and reflects on the fear and destruction of lives this battle in the war on drugs has fostered. He examines the argument of legalization versus decriminalization, touching on the pros and cons of both, while pointing out the hypocrisy that comes with white capitalists profiting of legal cannabis, while thousand of people of color continue to be locked up for cannabis possession and distribution.
He suggests that while legalization can generate tax revenue for the states and the federal government, such revenue will be going into the "black hole" of taxation that exists within capitalist governments. He notes also that corporate weed will push out working class pot dealers, particularly those of color, who have managed to eke on some semblance of economic dignity from the underground prohibition market.
Ending the video, Double D brings the discussion back to the political processes that occur within capitalist societies. He points out that while mass movements against marijuana prohibition have helped to normalize cannabis culture, the real push for legalization has come at the behest of capitalists seeking to build a legal cannabis market. He points to this fact as emblematic of the political reality in liberal bourgeois democracy: that it is the will of the capitalist class, not the working class, that propels the engine of political change within liberal society. He examines how the delay in cannabis prohibition reform is the result of clashing interests between two fiefdoms within the capitalist class: those of the insurgent industrial cannabis growers, and those of the entrenched Prison Industrial Complex. He points out that while these two sections of the capitalist class vie against one another to shape policy, the war on drugs will continue to destroy hundreds of thousands of lives.

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#cannabis #cannabisprohibition #marijuana #marijuanamovement #marijuanaprohibition #weed #weeprohibition #warondrugs #thewarondrugs

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