Joe Biden has been projected to have won the presidential election by several major news organizations. If that sticks when all the votes are certified, and if he fulfills a key campaign promise once he gets to the White House, federal marijuana reform will be part of his administration’s legacy.
Although the Democratic former vice president has embraced decriminalizing cannabis possession, expunging past records and other modest moves, he has faced criticism over his record pushing punitive anti-drug legislation during his time in the Senate. And reform advocates have similarly taken him to task over his refusal to join the majority of U.S. voters and a supermajority of those in his own party in embracing broad adult-use marijuana legalization.