10/07/22 10/07/22 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >>his year's peace prize is awarded to human rights advocate ales bialiatski from belarus. the russian human rights organization memorial and the

ukrainian human rights organization center for civil liberties. amy: over seven months after russia invaded ukraine, the nobel committee awards this year's prize to organizations from russia and ukraine as well as an imprisoned activist from belarus. we will go to moscow to speak with the former executive director of one of the closed down groups, the memorial human rights center. we will also speak to the head of the right livelihood foundation. all three winners of the nobel are right livelihood laureates. then-president biden hard thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law. we will talk to the drug policy alliance. >> i think we are ready to have convsations about how to to schedule cannabis, how to

create a space where cannabiis no lger prohibited, and we actually move to not just pardon, but full expungement as well as protections for noncitizens. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden said thursday he will pardon anyone convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law in a major step toward the decriminalization of cannabis. he announced his plan in a video postedn social media. presbiden: im announng a pardonor all pri federal fenses of e simple possessi of marijna. the arehousands of pele convicd for majuana ssesonho m be deni emoymentnd houng, educatiol opportunities as a result of that conviction. amy: biden also called on

governors to pardon people found guilty of marijuana charges on the state level, where most convictions occur. the drug policy alliance applauded the move as a good first step but added "we, however, hope the biden administration will go further and fully the schedule marijuana from the controlled substances act." we will have more with drug policy alliance director kassandra frederique later in the broadcast. in ukraine, the death toll from missile strikes in the city of zaporizhzhia has risen to 11 after rescue crews combed through the rubble of a five-story apartment complex flattened by a russian assault on thursday. 21 survivors were pulled from the blast site. ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy said the death toll rose after a russian strike fell on first responders who rush to the site, a tactic known as a double-tap strike. >> after the first rocket rike

today, when people came to pick apart the rubble, russia conducted a second -- absolute evil. there have been thousands of instances already and there coulde thousands more, unfortunately. amy: zelenskyy's comments thursday camas he met with the head of the u.n.'s international atomic energy agency, rafael grossi, in kyiv. their meeting came aay after ruian president vladim putin declared the occupied zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant to be russian federal property. grossi rejected putin's assertion, and repeated his call for the establishment of a nuclear safety and secity protecti zone around the zaporizhzhia plant, where fierce fighting has threatened to trigger a radiation disaster. >> operating an almost unbearable situations. e stress, the uncertainty, not knowing what is going to happen. we are here in a conflict.

we want this war to stop immediately and of course the position of the iaea -- amy: president biden has warned the world faces the threat of armageddon if russian president vladimir putin decides to use a nuclear weapon in ukraine. biden was speaking at a thursday evening fundraiser for the democratic senatorial campaign committee at the home of james murdoch, son of media mogul rupert murdoch. in widely quoted remarks, biden said -- "for the first time since the cuban missile crisis, we have a direct threat of the use of nuclear weapons if in fact things continue down the path they are going. putin is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming." the 2022 nobel peace prize will

be awarded to imprisoned belarus human rights activist ales bialiatski, as well as the russian group memorial and the ukrainian organization center for civil liberties. the norwegian nobel committee announced this year's peace prize winners at a ceremony this morning in oslo. >> they have made an outstanding effort to stop -- document war crimes, human rights abuses, and the abuse of power. together they demonstrate the significance of civil society toward peace and democracy. amy: this year's peace prize announcement came as russian president vladimir putin turned seven years old today. it is also the anniversary of the assassination of the crusading human rights and anticorruption reporter, a

fierce critic of putin and russia's war in chechnya. after headlines, we'll go to moscow to speak with anna dobrovolskaya, who led the memorial human rights center in moscow before it was shut down by the russian government. the death toll from hurricane ian has topped 131 with most of the victims and a florida making ian second only to hurricane katrina among the deadliest storms. on thursday at an analysis published by the group core logic estimate total flood and when losses from hurricane in at upo $70 llion. thlorida per and lht compy says it h restore powetover two point o milliocustomerwithewer than 10000 customers in the hardest hit areas to remaining in the dark. meanwhile, some 82,000 homes and businesses in puerto rico still lacked power on thursday, more than two weeks after hurricane fiona collapsed the island's fragile electrical grid.

a new report finds the world bank has financed at least $14.8 billion in fossil fuel development since the signing of the paris climate agreement in 2015. that's despite a pledge by world bank officials five years ago to stop supporting oil and gas projects within two years. a campaigner with the group glasgow actions team said -- "if the world bank wants to be a part of the solution rather than the problem, it needs to stop funding fossil fuels and unlock bibillions in order to support e transition to renewable energy across the globe and end poverty and inequality." in washington, d.c., at least 13 immigrant justice advocates were arrested thursday while protesting this week's fifth circuit court of appeals ruling deeming the obama-era deferred action for childhood arrivals program, or daca, illegal. those already enrolled in the program are still allowed to renew their daca but give

applicants are blocked -- but new applicants are blocked. advocates are also demanding congress enact permanent immigration relief for undocumented people. daca recipients diana plago and cindy colade joined the protests. >> i can't -- what number of time i am anxiously awaiting on a court decision and unsure of what is going to hapn. maybe it will ruin our futures. i don't know. it is really hard to live life that way. >> we want to make sure all the children part of this country, no matter what, with daca it will help them stay and be part of this community and pay taxes and pay everything this country needs. amy: in august of the biden administration turned daca to federal regulation to protect it from further legal challenges. that ruling is scheduled to take effect october 31. daca was enacted in 2012 and shielded hundreds of thousands of immigrants were brought to the u.s. as children from deportation and granted them work permits here in the united

states. in new mexico, immigrant justice organizations report a group of asylum-seekers held at the torrance county detention facility have been on hunger strike since last week, protesting inhumane and unsanitary conditions. the asylum seekers are denouncing chronic medical neglect, inedible food and horrific abuse at torrance, which is run by the private prison corporation corecivic. demands are mounting to shut down the immigration and customs enforcement detention center following the death from suicide of 23-year-old kelsey vial, an asylum seeker from brazil. this is orlando de los santos, a hunger striker and asylum seeker from the dominican republic, who has been detained at torrance since july. >> we are demanding our freedom. no more deportation. we demand to be treated equal.

no human being should be detained here. it floods with water. it is full of mosquitoes. the food they serve us is often raw. amy: the city of rochester, new york, has agreed to pay a $12 million settlement to the family of daniel prude, a black man killed by police in march 2020. prude died from asphyxiation after rochester police officers handcuffed him while he was naked, put a hood over his head, and then pushed his face into the freezing cold ground for two minutes while kneeling on his back. last year, a grand jury decided not to file charges against the officers involved in prude's death. the prude family filed a lawsuit two years ago. the city of rochester has not admitted liability in prude's killing and did not pay punitive damages. in more news from new york, a federal judge has blocked major portions of a state law

restricting who can carry concealed firearms in public spaces. district court judge glenn suddaby ruled thursday that new york's attempts to bar guns from so-called sensitive spaces, including schools, libraries, museums and theaters, violated the constitutional right to carry a firearm for the purposes of self-defense. new york attorney general letitia james has promised to appeal thursday's ruling. in the mexico, at least 20 people were killed in the state of guerrero after gunmen wearing ski masks burst into a town hall in the city of san miguel totolapan wednesday and opened fire during a meeting hosted by the local mayor. the mayo conrado mendoza, was among those killed as well as his father, who was a former mayor. the gunmen reportedly belonged to a local drug gang that is in a dispute with arrival drug smelling group. an investigation is underway. in london, thousands supporters of wikileaks founder julian assange are planning to form a human chain outside parliament

saturday as they demand the united kingdom cancel plans to extradite assange to the united states to face charges that could see him jailed for life. assange's u.s. supporters are planning a similar rally near the department of justice in washington, d.c., on saturday, where they will demand the biden administration cancel plans to try assange on hacking charges and 17 counts of violating the espionage act. if convicted, julian assange faces up to 175 years in prison. federal prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge hunter biden. that is according to "the washington post" which reports a final decision has been made by the u.s. attorney in delaware who was appointed by former president donald trump. the investigation into hunter biden began in 2018 and was the central issue in trump's unsuccessful reelection campaign in 2020.

in the national football league has once again faced scrutiny over its policy on traumatic brain injuries and concussions following a series of high profile head injuries this season. on thursday evening, indianapolis colts running back was pulled from a game against the denver broncos after he struggled to get to his feet after he was struck in the head. this comes after miami dolphins quarterback suffered a horrifying concussion in a game against the cincinnati bengals in september. this week a neural pathologist who has worked -- whose work was depicted in the 2015 from "concussion" said the 24-year-old star should retire from football. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, over seven months after russia invaded ukraine, nobel peace prize has been awarded to three human rights

groups and russia, ukraine, and belarus, as well as an imprisoned activist from belarus. we will look at this year's winners. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. the norwegian nobel committee has announced the 2022 nobel peace prize will be awarded to the imprisoned human rights activist ales bialiatski, as well as the russian human rights group memorial, and the ukrainian organization center for civil liberties. the norwegian nobel committee announced this yr's pee prize winners a ceremonthis morning in oslo. >> by awarng the nob peace prize for 2022 to ales bialiatski, memial, and t

center for civil liberties, the norwegian nobel cmittee whes to honor three ostandi chamons of hum rhts, democracy, andeaceful coexistence in the neighbor countries belarus, russia, and raine. thugh their consistent effort in favor of human values and principles of law, this year's laureates have revitalized and honored alfred nobel's vision of peace andraterny betwee naons. a vision most needed in the world day. amy: after the nobel committee's

announcement, anna dobrovolskaya -- spoke to reporters. >> i am happy. i'm delighted to be part of the team that is so motivated that did such wonderful things for our country. we understand their catalyst of changes in this motivates as even more to institute changes in our society. when the full skill aggression started, we did not sit idle. we organized a team of defenders of law, which actively documented war crimes. we have loved over 20,000 more crime so far and this is done in order to punish all perpetrators. amy: we are joined now by two guests, joining us from stockholm, sweden, ole von uexkull, executive director of the stockholm-based right livelihood award foundation. all three winners of this year's

in pres prize are -- peace prize are right livelihood boys. and with us in moscow is anna dobrovolskaya, former executive director of memorial human rights center in moscow before it was shut down by the russian government. let's begin with you. the significance of this announcement. did you know before the announcement that your group was going to win the nobel peace prize? and what does this mean for what is happening right now i know russia? >> hello, amy. no, i had no idea we would be winners this year. memorial has been nominated a few times before and some of our staff members have been nominated before. of course it is a great honor. though i am no longer with

memorial, i do recve congratulations from all over the world and people consider this a common victory for civil society, not just in russia, but -- it is extremely important now with the rsian and ukrainian war. i russia, i'm sure significant importance because memorial keeps facing huge difficulties. i am hoping the russian authorities -- as we no, it did not help [indiscernible] no bright forecast here. amy: talk about what memorial worked on when it was allowed to

function and what needs to be done right now in russia. >> lee memorial was able to function, we did lots of things. we have two major -- we had historical remembrance for the political repression during soviet times and the mobilization for those events and the human rights league which i was the chair of. we worked with document of war crimes in chechnya and violations all over the country. also provided various legal aid for violations everywhere. right now this all better be continued because russia is the place for lots of violations happening and actually the current events is the continuation -- has been promoted by memorial for a long

period of time. but if you have huma rights that are ignored and impunity instead of putin's people responsible for thoseuman rights violations, needs soone or later it will go beyond the borders of the country and that is what we see exactly now with russia, ukraine, before with georgia, and other countries. amy: in march, democracy now! spoke to the head of the center for civil liberties in ukraine, which won the nobel peace prize today. this is what she said then. >> when the war started, i asked myself, do i feel fear? i was emotial but i don't have fear. i have two main emotions. the first emotion is anger. i am really angry at the millions of ukrainians that russia invades to our country, that russia decided to stop our democratic choice, try to impose

their logic of soviet unit and push us away to the past, which we don't want to return to. but most emotion is lost. this is a loss to my country. this is a loss to our people. it is a loss to our values. and we won't stand for it. amy: and speaking in a video produced by the right livelihood foundation. she is one of this year's livelihood laureates. >> ukraine they're going through difficult times. they are for our freedom in all senses. for freedom to be independent country. for freedom to be ukrainians with our own language and culture. and for freedom to have democrat choice. we have humanitarianar cris in this wawith russia in order -- to provide justice.

amy: the executive director of the right livelihood award foundation, which is based in stockholm, sweden. they produced that video because -- the center -- ccl, the ukraine human rights group, the center for civil liberties, not only won the nobel peace prize today was just an as they won the right livelihood awards. can you talk about the significance of two organizations for the nobel committee and the right livelihood awards, and just to ccl, memorial, and the belarusian group -- human rights activist imprisoned right now, what this means? >> thank you, amy. congratulations, anna. i amverjoyed. it was amazing press to hear we

follow the announcement in oslo and the right livelihood announced and then a second one and even a third o, awarding them together i think is very significant. very, very good time. partularly snificant that they received peace award. they as defenders of docracy and the rule of law, received a peace award. as an already pointed out, democracy is realla precondition for peace and we see in their work how they are laying the foundations for societies to be peaceful. that is something we have been hearing from memorial and other laureates for a bit longer, for many years is the crackdown they experienced in their own countries also have to be read and understood as a preparation for war. i think particularly fantastic

-- they e from -- have their roots i the democracy movement of the 1980's. olexsandra is of the younger democracy, i think 38. this work that she does really shows the alternative to that kind of brutal aggression, the alternative which you can find in international law. amy: anna, if you can talk about the significance of a russian group, belarusian -- human rights activist now imprisoned and ccl in ukraine, winning this award together. in the west it is always presented as russia versus ukraine but your perspective as a human rights activist and lawyer?

>> that is a very good question. a lot ofeople are now concerned saying they were hoping for the peaceful coexistence and actually for many people of ukraine, those words were very controversial. people will also see bringing ukraine, belarus, and russia together is some kind of attempt -- maybe they still have a common future. at is what putin and his government are hoping for. i see some contradictions. at the same time, we all know there always will be people who are not completely happy with these or any other decisions. some people in my team memorial, i spoke to them this morning and they said we think we don't

deserve it because we could not stop the war, we could not be receiving the peace prize in these moments because the war is still going. the world war in geora, chechnya, syria, and many other places. again the question is, would it be different without them? we truly know probably -- belarus, ukraine, and russia. i am hoping for my longtime colleague ales bialiatski, not just him, but many other people -- keep receiving horrible sentences. just yesterday, a prominent journalist sentenced to 14 years in prison. i'm just hoping with the administration, there is -- the

international community is paying attention to the work of civil society in all three countries will deftly change the fate not just of the laureates, but everyone. amy: i want to go to the imprisoned pollution activist ales bialiatski who just won the nobel peace prize. this is a couple minute video produced by the right livelihood foundation when he won in 20. >> as bialiaki is a human rights activist in belus, ading an hest 30-yea campaign for democracy and freedom. in 1996, he unded human rights nter, which today is the country's leading organization documenting human rights abus and monitoring elections. berus, und the authotarian rule, has often been referred to as europe's last dictatorship.

elections are rigged. and civil society is severely restricted. ales bialiatski spent several years in prison on trumped up charges. the government has frequently targeted him and his members however, their persistence and long-standing efforts to empower the people belar have rendered them an unstoppable force for freedom. due to large-scale demonstrations, ales bialiatski has been playing a leading role in advocating for the freedom of assembly, defending the rights of people arrested for protesting,nd documting humarights abus. campaigning to stand for e multitudof courages people

protesting the go she goes dictatorial --ukashen's dictorial reign. amy: and let's hear the imprisoned belarusian human rights activist ales bialiatski in his own words. it was announced today he has won the nobel peace prize. he spoke in stockholm when he won the 2020 right livelihood award. >> dear friends, this year's right livelihood awards and human rights award is very important and exciting moment in our lives. we are receiving the award --

has been engaged in breathtaki struggle of fight for human rights, democracy, and justice. a fight for e right to be called people as a belarusian writer has said, a fight against europe's last tar and the regi he has built over 26 years most of amy: ales bialiatski ended his right livelihood award accepted speech speaking in english. he congratulated his fellow winners, including the leading human rights activist in the united states bryan stevenson, and the right level hood award winner the iranian human rights lawyer who was imprisoned at the time. >> in a terrible situation now. i can imagine how -- and present an even harder to go back. sometimes i have dreams i am in prison again and those are my

darkness dreams. my heart and souare wit nas rin now. thank you. amy: iranian human rights lawyer was imprisoned in 2020. she is home now on medical leave from prison. ole von uexkull, i want to go back to you to talk about that moment. i was just texting with bryan stevenson who also won that year. he is calling for ales's release from prison, congratulated him winning the nobel peace prize today. he was not able to meet him in person because of the midst of the pandemic. i believe ales is the only one who me to sweden for the awards. so you spent time with him. >> yeah, that was really incredible to hear his words there again and very typical for him to always think of others

first and think of the international and universal nature of this price for democracy and human rights. he calleprospect of having to go to prison his darkest dream. unfortunately, that is what happened. he was arrested again, together with other colleagues, and just spent his 60th birthday -- now a couple of days ago -- in prison and a very bad conditions that we have also been protesting at the u.n. human rights council. with this nobel peace prize now, belarus has to understand they have to immediately release ales bialiatski and other pro-democracy fighters who are imprisoned. russia has to understand that

they have to end the prosecutions of memorial. i hope that will be the effect of this award. amy: earlier this year, democracy now! spoke to a woman who works with the imprisoned belarusian activist ales bialiatski in the organization, which in english translates into "spring." she was speaking to us in march in the when you, talking about -- lithuania, talking about her country. >> there are more than 1000 local prisoners in belarus. it influences extremely on their health. political prisoner dies. political prisoners in belarus.

to show solidarity and support them by sending postcards and letters of solidarity from all countries from the world. amy: anna dobrovolskaya, again, you are in moscow, executive director of what was memorial human rights center in moscow. if you can talk about the role of belarus right now in russia's war on ukraine? >> it is very hard to describ what is going on because we have the official position which is like belar has nothing to with the war but we see a lot of troops and weaponry and logistical -- it was recently reported there were missile

issues on ukrainian territory from belarus. lukashenko is a close friend to putin. he is like the closest companion may be of all soviet countries. we see belarus is a few steps ahead of russia. what is happening in belarus or what was happening in belarus started happening in russia maybe a couple of years. right now the situation with civil society and evething is horrible. but unfortunately, in the international agenda, people belarus and russia are presented often as those who support the war, which is absolutely not true, especially for belarus. people are being severely detained en if they try to do somethinvery, ve innocent

like giving money to groups or something like that. unfortunately, we see this is the future of russia. amy: today's nobel announcement comes on vladimir putin's 70th birthday and also on the 16th anniversary of the assassination of a fierce journalist, attic of putin, critic of russia's war, crusading rights and anticorruption reporter. what do we know about her death at this time? >> i'm not sure about the recent developments, but it was not properly investigated as it happened with the death of other journalists and human rights activists in russia. there probly are some people who are being imprisoned due to the fact like those who supplemented -- there's no

proper investigation unfortunately all of these crimes are not being taken care of by th government. priously we had -- her death was a tragedy. it was the first one -- to this day she is very well remembered. she has books. people bring flowers. everyone understands her murder was the point of no return where it was already clear rusa is going into some strange diction. amy: how do you see this war ending? >> oh, my go i would really, really hope --

it is difficult because a lot of people are hoping ukraine -- hoping there could be some possible settlement. i'm definitely thinking russia will pay a lot of money for everything that happened in ukraine. i am hoping there will be some international treaty against war criminals people who were accountable will be held accountable for the deaths. that is my hope. will there be some peace negotiation now or later, that is hard to predict. people are saying no peace agreement is possible, which is understandable. i am just hoping nobody will die , but the conflict is still going on. amy: ole von uexkull, the right livelihood awards are often referred to as the alternative nobel prize. now the alternative has merged

with the actual nobel prize. if you can talk about what that means and in the world today to see human rights activists and groups in belarus and ukraine and russia all receiving the nobel peace prize, what this could lead to? >> we have been presenting the right livelihood awards since 1980 and there has been an understanding of the importance of civil society activism from the very beginning. with the nobel prize, sometimes they honor that but they honor people like barack obama wit totally different ki of understanding of how chge should ce about in the world. we bieve stronglpower lies in people who get organizedo

fight for important causes like democracy, le peace, like human rights and actually have a huge eect. inhis rega, i would say the three let -- right livelihood now nobel laureates who won the nobel peace prize, incredible message of hope. it is really a symbol of the weakness of vladimir putin and the old-style military aggression. it shows the enormous power of civilized way to handle conflict , international conflict, to build society for peace. our rule of law, through economics is -- mechanisms of peace. if collected more than 20,000

pieces of evidence for war crimes. ve no doubt there is going to be credibility. putin is going to emerge as a loser and not through the traditional military means but be defeated by accountability, by rule of law, by democracy. for me tt is the message of hope. amy: since you seem to be a predictor of those that will win the nobel peace prize, can you talk about to won this year? you just made the announcement for the right livelihood award foundation, the four winners. >> right. we also gave an award to somalia this year, a mother and daughter who built ap center which does local work with communities, disarmament of former combatant

working with child soldiers, working against gender-based violence. for us, it was also important in reallyood message to have this conflict in somalia which, unfortunately, for too many around the world, perceived as more of a forgotten conflict, to have that honored in the same year with ukraine -- which rightly so, gets a t of attention right now -- because there are so many parallels and how you work for peace. in the four laureates, award goes also to a cooperative -- network of cooperatives in venezuela providing more than 100,000 families with needs, much more successfully so than the failing ecomic system. and really shows the power of solidarity of economics in the me of crisis. and we give an award to the

african institute fringe energy government -- for energy government for its work in localized renewable energy and important void in the campaign against e disaster east africa crude oil pipeline bringing the voices of local people into these international campaign. amy: and finally, we have been tracking the rise of neo-fascism in europe, whether we're talking about meloni in italy, very proud to embrace mussolini, poland's ruling party, and of course what is happening in sweden with the sweden democrats might surprise people to hear who the sweetest democrats are. is this a concern of yours come as you speak to us from stockholm? >> it is a huge concern.

terrible. a party with its roots in fascism. the conservative and even the liberal party now chose to align themselves with the sweden democrats, just for tactical gate, in order to get the next prime minister elected. when traditional established parties do something like that, we have seen so many times in history. obviously, they normalize this kind of hateful discourse with fascism. in the process, people in the end vote for the original. the conservatives were defeated but now there new ally, the sweden democrats, they will obably form the next government it is terrible blow to sweden. it is not a coincidence and organization like ours was founded and it is country, but it was founded because of our

long-snding history here supporting democracy and rule of law and human rights around the world. and now we won't be able to do that in a credible whitney longer. people d't seem to realize that is going to weaken sweden a lot. like i just said, the power of the universal values of democracy and rule of law, yes, they are under attack, but i think they will prevail and it is very sad to see sweden starting to turn away from this. amy: ole von uexkull, thank you for being with us, executive director of the stockholm-based right livelihood award foundation. the right livelihood awards have gone to all three of the nobel peace prize winners announced today. i also want to thank anna dobrovolskaya, executive directorf now closed down

memorial human rights center in moscow. memorial was just honored by the norwegian novell committee -- nobel committee. coming up, the president -- president biden pardons thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession. we will speak to the drug policy alliance. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president biden has announced he will pardon anyone convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law. in a major step toward the decriminalization of cannabis. he announced his plan in a video posted on social media. pres. biden: as i said en i ran for preside, no onehould in jailust for usi or ssessingarijuana is alreyllegal in many stat. itas ledo neeess barrrs tomploymenousing,

educatioopportunies. that is bere y addresshe raal dispaties arod who ffers th conseences. blacand brn peoe are arsted, precuted, nvicted atisprortionely high rates. so today am taki threeteps endhis veed approh. fit, i'mnnouncg a pard for alprior feral oenses the cil posseson of marijuana. there arthousas of ople nvicted r marijua posssion whoay be deed ployme, housin or edation opportunies as result of th conviion. my parn will rove this burden. seco, callinon alloverrs to do the me fortate care want to sssion offses. third, the feder governmt clasfies mijuana aa schele 1 substance come e sames heroinnd lsdnd more serious than feanyl. it makes n sense. i'm king theecretaryealth d humanervices d the torney general to reew how

rijuana scduled unde federalaw. import limitations on trafficking, marketing, and other arranged -- other aged sales. its time we write these wrongs. amy: as president biden calls for parts at the state level, we are joined by kassandra frederique, executive director of the drug policy alliance. were you surprised? so often when you come to point like this, the pardoning of all people convicted of marijuana possession at the federal level, it is grassroots organizations and alliances that have pushed something like this forward. >> thank you so much for having me, amy. i think we were open to the president's announcement for

really long time, boots on the ground, have been pushing for us to get to a place where decriminalizing, reinvesting and community's, and leaving cannabis prohibition behind. there president's announcement yesterday was an opening gesture to a much broader conversation. amy: before we talk about that, explain what it means. he is talking about federal charges. anyone convicted of federal charges of pot possession are pardon. who does this include and who doesn't it include? >> it is important to contextualize that these pardons remove legal barrierto things like employment, housing, licensing, public benefits. this is an arena of around 6500 people. most people that are currently in the federal system are not there for simple possession, but

this is going to be really helpful for those 6500 peopl and lllso cover those in the district of columbia who are under this federal jurisdiction that they will also have the opportunity to get their offenses, their code offenses pardon as well. amy: we're talking about people in prison currently? and also people who are not in prison but have this record was stuck how many do you know will be free from reason -- prison immediately? >> what we have found is there not that many people, if any, currently in the federal prison for simple possession. what we know is a majority of the people that are going to be impacted by this pardon are people who have these convictions who are currently navigating really devastating collateral consequences associated with the federal conviction on simple possession. remember, this is about removing legal barriers but these people

still have convictions on their records. the other thing important, noncitizens were excluded, which is really unfortunate because people who are noncitizens -- cannabis is one of the main reasons why people are detained or deported. as i said, thiis an opening gesture for what we are pushing for to be a broader conversation. amy: let me elaborate with a quote from jane shim, senior policy attorney for the immigrant defense project. the statement reads in part -- "it is extremely disappointing that the administration went out of its way to exclude undocumented immigrants. furthermore, even immigrants who were pardoned may remain at risk of detention and deportation because of a marijuana offense, thanks to our punitive immigration laws." >> that is exactly right. drug policy alliance has learned an incredible amount of the intricacies of the immigration policy and drug policy over the last decade. in fact, most people don't realize our first drug laws was

enough of it aggression policies -- xenophobic immigration policies. we're working to figure out how we can continue to push where the president is right now, conversation that is going to bring the necessary material condition changes our community needs. amy: what is that broer conversation? what are you demanding? >> we are demanding the presidend schedu and to criminalize cannabis. it should not be in the controlled substance act. we need where we are removing the legal barriers people are facing, unappointed, licensing, housing benefits, and immigration. also this is time for the president to focus with the congress to actually push forward federal legislation. the federal legislation introduced like the cannabis administration and opportunity act, includes the decriminalization, resentencing, expungement, and the federal

governmentunding the state to do expungement as well. we think this is supercritical and we also really want people to understand that we are excited to have this conversation but are very clear that what we know is necessary. we have seen cannabis regulation happening across the country and know what works and what is best for communities. amy: can you talk about the more act? it was passed twice by the house. >> this is the first federal cannabis regulation bill th passed in congress in the house of representatives. it passed twice. the current iteration of this bill is in the senate and that is the cannabis administration opportunity act. those things kind of mary a lot of the same thgs. -- marry a lot of the same things.

amy: so now biden is saying the governors have to do the same. how many states -- we're talking recreational marijuana, legal and a 19 states, and guam step where you see movement there? who is most impacted by these laws? >> what we know is cannabis laws have impacted millions of people around the country and we also know it dispportionally is impacting communities of color. when we are looking at these pardons that are really trying to remove legal barriers the federal level, it is most impacting -- there's a disproportionate amount of people of color but we also know and why could commit back to the work congress needs to do is even if states create pardons are still people who are going to be impacted because the

federal barrrs have not been changed. so governors -- with governo, we really want them to pardon forward but we recognize a lot of that will be impacting communities of color but we really need the federal government to remove the barrier now. the president understands that cannabis legalization or cannabis regulation or cannabis prohibition has created barriers for people getting access to housing, employment, benefits, and for us, including the conversation of deportation and detention, not only to have this conversation of scheduling of cannabis but also let's have the conversation of changing the administration barriers impeding amy: kassandra frederique, clearly, we have a lot more to talk about what we have no more time today. executive director of the drug policy alliance, a national nonprofit fighting to end the

so-called war on drugs. that does it for our show. democracy now! is currently accepting applications for an associate digital editor and a people and culture manager. learn more and apply at democracynow.org. [captioning made possible by