August 24, 2022

In the not-too-distant future, the world may realize that President Joe Biden is a hypocrite. He spent a good part of his career as a United States senator drafting and voting for laws that put people in cages for even possessing cannabis. Now he’s outraged over Russia’s arresting Brittney Griner for bringing hash oil containing THC into that country.

Griner is a member of the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA. In the offseason, she plays for a team in Russia, and that’s why she went there earlier this year. She is also black, and a lesbian, neither of which would matter if we didn’t live in a politically correct world where virtually anything a person is, says, or does becomes political.

What Griner did, bringing THC into Russia, is against the law in that country. It’s also wholly illegal in several states here in the United States, despite the growing number of states that have legalized possession, sale, and use. And some states that have legalized medical use of cannabis will still throw a person in jail who doesn’t have a medical exemption. Pennsylvania is one such state.

Worse yet, cannabis remains on the federal contraband list. So technically, a person in a state where it’s legal, can still be brought up on federal charges.

And now, while he has not come out in favor of repealing the federal prohibition, the president is upset that Russia has arrested a U.S. citizen for possessing THC there. Yet, it’s the same offense that could put someone in federal prison here. And Biden has supported those laws. That is hypocritical.

If the president really believes that the Russian government’s prosecution of Griner for possession is wrong, as he has said, then he should come out in favor of ending the federal prohibition on cannabis here. Otherwise, he remains a hypocrite.

The same holds true for Vice President Kamala Harris. She spent years as a prosecutor throwing people in cages for simple marijuana possession and use.

This is not just a libertarian view. Even one of Biden’s fellow Democrats, former U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii, said a few weeks ago of Harris: “My question for her and the Biden administration — where is your outrage for your fellow Americans who are sitting in prison today here in the United States of America because of minor marijuana violations? How come you are not fighting as hard for them to be returned home and reunited with their families as you are for Brittney Griner?”

Biden’s position, and that of his whole administration, is hypocritical political theater, and he should be called out on this.