Petro praises Biden policy after pardon of marijuana possession charges

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, praised on Saturday the new decision of the US president, Joe Biden, on pardon of federal convictions for the simple possession of marijuana.

“The White House takes a fundamental step to change the vision of the fight against drugs. The marijuana user will not be treated as a criminal,” the president wrote, via Twitter, in a trill accompanied by a video where Biden explains the measure.

“I am announcing a pardon for all prior federal offenses involving simple marijuana possession. There are thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession, who may be denied employment, housing, or educational opportunities as a result of that conviction. My pardon will take away this burden,” Biden says in the video, first released Thursday by the White House on Twitter.

In a release issued by the White House, Biden assured that “sending people to prison for possession of marijuana has derailed too many lives and has put people in jail for behavior that many states no longer prohibit.”

President Petro has repeatedly pointed out that the fight against drugs has been a failure and has proposed drawing up a new international strategy to combat drug trafficking, an issue that he put on the table during the recent visit of the US Secretary of StateAntony Blinken, to the South American country, as well as in his debut at the United Nations General Assemblyin September.

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