In the twilight of his tenure in office, President Joe Biden declared on Friday that he was commuting the sentences of 2,500 inmates incarcerated on drug offenses. This is in addition to the 1,500 commutations he gave out last month.
The president noted that his most recent use of the pardon powers given to him by the Constitution made him the most lenient president in history.
“With this action, I have now issued more individual pardons and commutations than any president in U.S. history,” the departing commander in chief said.
“These commutations are a prime example of how Joe Biden cares more about criminals than law-abiding citizens. The Republican Senate is ready to work with President Trump to restore law and order,” said Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., in a statement to The Daily Signal.
During his two terms in office, President Barack Obama only issued 1,715 commutations and 212 pardons. President Donald Trump issued a mere 94 commutations and 144 pardons during his first term.
The commutations come as the United States experiences a prolonged drug epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 100,000 people died of drug overdose in 2022 in the United States. About 76% of those deaths involved opioids.
Illegal drugs are also fueling the cartels that smuggle people into the United States. The Daily Signal reported on the effects of drug smuggling on the Indian reservations. The Tohono O’odham Nation, located in Arizona, has been forced to spend $3 million to enforce security.
The Oregon Legislature decriminalized possession of some hard drugs in 2020. Subsequently, a state of emergency had to be declared in downtown Portland due to fentanyl use, and the state Legislature criminalized possession of hard drugs again just a few short years later.
Even a drug like marijuana, which has been decriminalized to various degrees in a majority of states, can have severe side effects. According to a 2017 National Academy of Medicine study, “cannabis use is likely to increase the risk of developing schizophrenia and other psychoses; the higher the use, the greater the risk.”
Biden cited in the statement as justification for the actions of clemency “discredited distinctions between crack and powder cocaine, as well as outdated sentencing enhancements for drug crimes.” He noted that Congress had attempted to correct these disparities with two pieces of legislation: the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 and the First Step Act of 2018, which was signed into law by Trump.
Cotton led the charge against the passage of the First Step Act in the United States Senate in 2018. At the time, Cotton wrote at length about problems he saw with the early drafts of the bill. After it passed the Senate, he “remain[ed] concerned that reducing sentences for drug traffickers and violent felons is a threat to public safety.”
This article was originally published at www.dailysignal.com
