This man will get a pardon for his U.S. pot conviction. But not everyone's so lucky

Chris Goldstein can finally get rid of the federal marijuana conviction that's been plaguing him for years.

U.S. President Joe Biden announced Thursday that thousands of Americans convicted of "simple possession" of marijuana under federal U.S. law are eligible for pardons.

That's great news for Goldstein, who was arrested at a cannabis legalization protest on federal land in 2013. But the vast majority of pot convictions in the U.S. are state offences. 

Biden called on U.S. governors to follow suit and issue pardons at the state level. Goldstein, a regional organizer for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, hopes they'll take heed. 

Here's part of his conversation with As It Happens host Nil Köksal.

President Biden believes that what he's done is going to help resolve what he calls the "collateral consequences" for people such as yourself. And I'm wondering what those consequences have been for you, and how this pardon will change your life?

For me, just walking around with a federal marijuana record is something that you think about every once in a while — that you're in your country and you've got this strange law and this record is hanging over your head.

It's affected me [in] travelling back and forth to Canada. I have a lot of opportunities up there, both for personal travel and professional travel, that I just haven't taken on. People like me have problems going back and forth over the border — not just to Canada, but in many places around the world.

And the final part for me has been in academia. I'm an adjunct instructor, or at least I was in the past before the pandemic, and I taught in the journalism department at Temple University. And applying for jobs at some other institutions, you know, I didn't get them. I can't say it was because of my record per se, but that is something that comes up on background checks.

So what did you think when you heard the announcement finally come out?

I was thrilled…. I voted for President Biden. [I was] proud to vote for the president. And we've been expecting this since Inauguration Day. This was a campaign promise.

I would have never been able to clear my record other than by presidential pardon.

When will the paperwork come through for you?

Oh, I can't wait. That's a good question. I asked the lawyer about that today and they say I should be contacted by the government, not the other way around. So I guess I'll wait for something to appear in my mailbox.

How did you end up with a federal marijuana conviction in the first place?

Back in 2013, we started staging protests here in Philadelphia at Independence Hall National Historic Park. That's where our Declaration of Independence was signed, and they have a free speech area out front. Seemed like the perfect place to protest federal marijuana laws and light up a few joints. So we did.

The first couple protests, there was no law enforcement action and we didn't expect to get arrested.… When we showed up again the following month, the park rangers were there in force. They had several hundred park rangers there for us. And then they started arresting and citing us.

So for half a joint — literally half a gram of marijuana — I got taken into federal court and prosecuted. I was sentenced to 24 months of federal probation. That included 28 drug tests, which I had to pass. And I was also made to pay a $3,000 [US] cash fine, which seems pretty steep even today. And of course, I got this federal record.

I could have applied for a presidential pardon two years after the end of my probation. But what the president is offering today is for nobody to have to apply.

Most of the people who have a record are at the state level ... and most of them were Black and brown residents of this country who bore the brunt of prohibition for so many years.- Chris Goldstein, cannabis legalization advocate

Is there anyone left out of this ... that concerns you?

Most of the people who have a record are at the state level. They weren't like me. They weren't protesting. They weren't out there trying to engage law enforcement. And most of them were Black and brown residents of this country who bore the brunt of prohibition for so many years.

So I hope that every governor takes heed of the president's message.

The other part of what Biden was saying was reviewing whether marijuana should be in the same legal category as LSD, heroin and fentanyl. It's known as a controlled substance right now. What does Biden's focus on ... reviewing that signal to you about where things are going?

This is huge news, really. I was out there protesting for this very thing to happen, which is called descheduling.

As you mentioned, marijuana is in ... the Controlled Substances Act [CSA] and it's in what's called Schedule 1, alongside heroin and LSD. So by President Biden taking the step of questioning scheduling, he's beginning the step of descheduling cannabis. 

Not a new idea, by the way. When the CSA was created back in 1970, there was a big blue ribbon commission that was created, and they also recommended … that marijuana didn't belong in the CSA at all. So that's what we'd like to see happen next.

Do you think there are more protests in your future? 

America is a protest nation. We know how to positively move things through civil disobedience and peaceful protesting. And as a Quaker, I believe in peaceful protest being a part of good politics. So, yes, I haven't given up on protesting. I would never do that.

But as far as this administration goes, that's what's interesting. Now we've got a presidential administration on our side. What we're fighting for today isn't just cannabis to be descheduled. We're also fighting for a greater wealth of social justice.

Right now in America, large corporations have taken over the cannabis industry. So what we'd like to see at the state level is that when national legalization happens here, it doesn't just deschedule marijuana, it also breaks up the big corporations. So we need to deschedule cannabis and we need to get small businesses involved.

If the federal government can do that, America can really move forward a little bit.

You were saying earlier that you've had to avoid travelling to Canada for the last decade or so since your conviction. Are you going to come to Canada once your pardon comes through?

Absolutely. It is one of the first trips I'm going to make. Literally, I cannot wait to get my pardon certificate in the mail. I'm going to take it to the border and take it across the border — and see what federal legislation really looks like up there. 

With files from The Associated Press. Interview produced by Chris Trowbridge. Q&A edited for length and clarity.