How many of biden's pardons were for drug related offenses?
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Executive summary
Counting President Joe Biden’s “drug-related” pardons depends on how one defines a pardon: categorical proclamations that wiped prior federal marijuana possession convictions affect thousands, while individual presidential pardons for drug offenses number in the dozens based on the reporting provided; the precise aggregate is not fully enumerated in the sources reviewed [1] [2] [3] [4].
1. The categorical marijuana pardons: thousands, not single digits
Biden used categorical proclamations to pardon people convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law on multiple occasions, beginning with an October 2022 proclamation that covered roughly 6,500 people convicted of the former federal offense of simple possession (described in reporting of the action) and followed by a December 2023 expansion that pardoned thousands more for marijuana offenses on federal lands and in the District of Columbia [1] [2] [5]. Those proclamations are functionally pardons but are handled differently in official Justice Department tallies, which can obscure raw totals unless one counts the proclamations’ beneficiaries directly [5].
2. Individual pardons for drug offenses: dozens documented in news reports
Beyond the categorical marijuana proclamations, news outlets documented multiple rounds of individual pardons aimed at people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses: an April 24, 2024 action granted pardons to 11 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes [3]; earlier and later rounds included small groups—six pardons issued on Dec. 30, 2022 included some drug- or alcohol-related convictions [1] [6], and reporting around late 2024 noted a December round that raised Biden’s total to about 65 pardons overall, many of which targeted nonviolent, often drug-related cases [4]. Summing the explicitly mentioned small-group pardons in these stories yields at least 56 individual pardons tied to reporting (6 + 11 + 39 referenced in news accounts), but that arithmetic reflects what reporters highlighted, not an exhaustive DOJ roster [1] [3] [4].
3. Commutations are a separate category—mostly drug sentences, but not pardons
Large numbers in the clemency record reported by multiple outlets refer to commutations—reductions of sentence—rather than pardons. Major single-day commutation actions affected nearly 1,500 people in one round and about 2,500 in another, and reporting describes those actions as primarily for people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses; these numbers are frequently conflated in public discussion with “pardons,” so clarity matters: commutations lower or end punishment, while pardons restore rights or forgive convictions [7] [3] [8] [9]. The distinction is central when answering “how many pardons” versus “how many clemencies for drug offenses” [3] [5].
4. Why a single definitive number is elusive in these sources
The official Justice Department statistics and media reports use different counting rules: DOJ tallies individual pardons and commutations and may not enumerate beneficiaries of categorical proclamations the same way news stories do, while many outlets focus on headline rounds and round up “thousands” for proclamations without offering a precise, independently verifiable total in every report [5] [10]. The sources reviewed document thousands of marijuana pardons via proclamation (October 2022 and December 2023) and dozens of individually named drug-related pardons (multiple small rounds), but none of the provided reporting gives a single consolidated total combining categorical proclamations and individual pardons in one definitive figure [1] [2] [3] [4].
Conclusion: a clear, sourced answer
If “drug-related pardons” is read narrowly as individual, case-by-case presidential pardons for drug offenses, the reporting documents at least several dozen such pardons (examples include 6 in Dec. 2022, 11 in April 2024, and a December 2024 round of 39 noted in press coverage) but stops short of an authoritative consolidated count [1] [3] [4]. If the category includes categorical proclamations pardoning prior federal marijuana possession convictions, the figure rises into the thousands because the October 2022 and December 2023 proclamations alone covered thousands of people [1] [2]. The sources reviewed do not supply a single, definitive aggregate that combines both types in one total; an exact consolidated number would require cross-referencing DOJ’s official lists with the proclamations’ beneficiary counts [5] [10].