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Exactly. Not many folks catching federal charges for simple possession. trafficking on the other hand....

https://www.ussc.gov/research/research-reports/weighing-impa...

Smart to do what he unilaterally can considering how stalled things are right now.

The change still happens within the executive branch - the DEA is in charge of the scheduling of marijuana.

The big limitation here is federal vs. state, not executive vs. legislative. Drug crime clemency isn't stalled in the states.

>very few people

i know it's relatively few people compared to the number of people with state charges, but the reporting on this says it's thousands of people. which, in absolute terms, is a lot of people.

Honest question, isn't there a bunch of stuff (including drug stuff) that the local cops don't pursue because it's the feds' job? Or is this just my small random assortment of U.S. crime drama viewing biasing my sample set?

Drug prosecutions are overwhelming local (meaning that they're state crimes).