Gov. Bill Lee won’t consider pardoning small marijuana possession offenses after President Biden urges states to act

Tennessee’s governor is rejecting a call by President Joe Biden to pardon people convicted of state-level simple marijuana possession. 

After President Biden on Thursday announced he would take executive action to pardon people with federal convictions, a spokesperson for Republican Gov. Bill Lee said they are not considering doing the same, according to email.   

In Tennessee, small possession of marijuana is punishable by up to one year in jail and $2,500 dollars.   

But Cosby Republican Rep. Jeremy Faison, the Tennessee House Republican Caucus Chair, cast doubt that many Tennesseans are arrested solely for simple possession. 

“I just don’t see that’s possible,” he said. “I would challenge someone to bring me a person who’s behind bars for simple possession.”

Faison says most of the county district attorneys he’s spoken to are not prioritizing these types of cases to begin with. But an ACLU report from 2020 showed more than 40% of all the state’s drug arrests were for marijuana possession.