President Joe Biden has made a step in the right direction in the fight to decriminalize marijuana. However, he needs to do more.

On Oct. 6, Biden announced that he would be pardoning all federal offenses of possessing marijuana. While this decision does not account for state-by-state offenses of marijuana possession, Biden encouraged state governments to follow suit.

What Biden did here was set a precedent that marijuana is not something that should send someone to jail. This is only a baby step, as possessing marijuana is still a federal crime. Pardoning those already in jail only goes that far – someone can still get arrested for having a small amount of marijuana.

It’s also important to note that Vice President Kamala Harris has a notorious record for prosecuting marijuana possession offenses when she was attorney general in her home state of California between 2011 and 2017.

Over 1,500 people were prosecuted and jailed following Harris’ rulings during her tenure as attorney general for the exact “crime” that Biden is pardoning nearly 6,500 people for.

During a Texas Democratic Party event on Oct. 9, Harris said, “The bottom line there is: Nobody should have to go to jail for smoking weed.” So why was she so adamant about prosecuting people for it just five years ago?

While this isn’t Biden’s record, it’s still important to point out the Vice President’s actions.

In order to bring justice to those who have been needlessly thrown in jail for marijuana possession, marijuana must be legalized.

A common, yet misconceived, argument against legalization of marijuana is that it is a gateway drug. However, evidence to suggest this is sparse at most. Most people who use marijuana do not progress to using harder substances like cocaine or heroin.

In a country where a substance as harmful and frequently deadly as alcohol is legal and easily accessible, it would stand to reason that marijuana is legal. Alcohol is exponentially more dangerous than marijuana use.

If the argument at hand here was that marijuana should be illegal because it is dangerous, then why is a substance like alcohol legal? If the war on drugs was about public safety, a substance like alcohol would be outlawed, not marijuana. According to the CDC, excessive alcohol use accounts for 140,000 deaths every year in the United States.

Those numbers simply do not exist for marijuana usage. In a country where a state like Massachusetts has dispensaries that look like fancy tech stores, why should someone living in another state be thrown in jail for having the same substance?

It’s also imperative to look at arrests for marijuana possession. White people and Black people use marijuana at virtually identical rates, yet Black people are four times more likely to be arrested than white people.

Biden said it himself: no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana. But he needs to do more than just pardon those already in jail. Legalize marijuana so that no one else goes to prison for this. It’s only what’s right.

~ Follow Ashley on Twitter!

@ashleyness2000