Aaron Chalfin
Aaron Chalfin is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.
Voting History
Marijuana reform
Pardoning federal convictions for simple possession of marijuana will have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.
| Vote | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Neutral/No Opinion | 8 |
| Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 8 |
Pardoning state convictions for simple possession of marijuana will have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.
| Vote | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 7 |
| Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 8 |
Comments
If one takes the normative position that marijuana use has few social costs (or, at a minimum, that a series of pardons won't stimulate further use), then it seems likely that any benefits will outweigh the few costs that there are. A number of states have already decriminalized marijuana so concerns about the effect of pardons on use are mostly moot. In those states, there is an especially strong reason to see pardons as reasonable given that marijuana possession is no longer a crime.
Moving marijuana from a Schedule I drug to a less-restrictive schedule or legalizing it at the federal level would have meaningful social benefits that exceed any social costs.
| Vote | Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 6 |
| Median Survey Vote | Median Survey Confidence |
|---|---|
| Agree | 8 |
Comments
The feds are less important in this arena than the states but marijuana enforcement is probably a poor use of federal resources. Major gangs and traffickers, who should receive attention from federal law enforcement, usually do not traffic in marijuana so I don't anticipate that this will compromise many investigations.
Comments
The pardon is largely symbolic as there are very few people who have federal convictions for marijuana possession.