When President Joe Biden was elected amidst a push in his party to implement criminal justice reforms and legalize adult-use marijuana, few may have guessed he would lead a more prohibitionist administration than his predecessor. But Biden was a notorious drug warrior in the 1990s, demanding harsher punishments and more criminalization, and those instincts haven't waned with time.
The White House's lack of enthusiasm for marijuana legalization and criminal justice proposals from fellow Democrats is evident in how little they’ve done. And now, Biden’s zeal for prohibition is being supercharged and transferred to tobacco. The Food and Drug Administration announced a proposal to ban menthol cigarettes in April. Now, the administration says the agency will pursue a rule prohibiting more than 99 percent of the cigarettes currently sold in America.
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