Comedian Chelsea Handler was day-drinking for effect the other day, saying she needed it after her social media browsing kept showing her draconian, egomaniacal, toxic masculinity-promoting “morons” one too many times. But today, in honor of a kind-of holiday — Marijuana’s 4/20 — Handler has put down the vodka and picked up — at least as a subject — another treasured mood-altering substance: cannabis.
Handler laments that there are “tens of thousands” of people still incarcerated after being prosecuted for marijuana-related crimes that today probably wouldn’t get them sent to jail. Cannabis laws have changed in the majority of U.S. states and Handler, along with others at the Pardons To Progress organization, want to get those people out of prison.
This 4/20, I’m joining the Pardons to Progress to help free Americans who are still incarcerated for cannabis. Head to https://t.co/43rvNnaGJ8 to see how you can help. pic.twitter.com/vgxs6yBRyC
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) April 20, 2023
The organization is “urging the nation’s governors to use their clemency power to release every last cannabis prisoner.” Handler is asking people who support clemency for weed crimes to call and pressure their governors.
President Biden has extended clemency to people convicted of certain federal marijuana offenses, but the vast majority of cannabis-related convictions take place on the state level, where the power is in the hands of governors. The comic take, of course, is that Handler is just trying to spring her weed dealer. After all, all that vodka is just so many empty calories.
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