An American instructor freed from a Russian prison after being convicted of marijuana possession was welcomed on the White House by President Donald Trump and key GOP congressional leaders on Tuesday.
But absent from Marc Fogel’s reception was acknowledgement of the idea of his conviction: A cost of possession of hashish that he lawfully obtained as a medical marijuana affected person in Pennsylvania, which might additionally earn him jail time domestically underneath federal prohibition.
Still, the attendance on the White House occasion has given advocates pause. Some of the identical folks celebrating his return to the U.S.—together with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Secretary of State Marco Rubio—have supported the established order of federal hashish prohibition.
Johnson has consistently opposed marijuana reform, together with on incremental points like hashish banking and making it simpler to conduct scientific analysis on the plant.
Rubio, for his half, has strongly opposed any strikes to legalize marijuana, and through his 2016 presidential marketing campaign advocated for implementing federal prohibition even in states which have enacted their very own hashish legal guidelines. The former senator has indicated tentative openness to permitting medical marijuana entry, however solely whether it is federally authorised by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Fogel was launched about two months after the State Department underneath former President Joe Biden lastly designated him as a “wrongfully detained” particular person—who was serving a 14-year sentence after being convicted of “drug smuggling” over possession of a half-ounce of hashish.
WELCOME HOME, MARC!🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/0b2Igcqudp
— Donald J. Trump (@actualDonaldTrump) February 12, 2025
As many lawmakers and supporters have identified over the previous 4 years, Fogel was a registered Pennsylvania medical hashish affected person who used it as an opioid various to deal with ache.
Ahead of his designation as wrongfully detained, there have been repeated requires the diplomatic standing change, together with a letter despatched to the Biden administration by over a dozen members of Congress in August that emphasised that Fogel’s access to marijuana was “necessary to subdue his pain.”
Following an historic, multinational prisoner swap final summer time, the place a number of Americans have been launched, the bicameral legislators despatched a letter to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, expressing their “gravest of concerns” in regards to the continued imprisonment of Fogel.
The lawmakers additionally famous that Fogel’s state of affairs is similar to that of WNBA participant Brittney Griner, who additionally served time in a Russian jail over possession of hashish oil that she additionally lawfully obtained as a medical marijuana affected person in Arizona before being released as part of an earlier prisoner swap that the Biden administration negotiated.
But the underlying hashish points that prompted Fogel’s incarceration weren’t publicly acknowledged, both throughout a media availability with Trump and Fogel on Tuesday evening or in a White House press release on Wednesday.
Of course, regardless of the presence of anti-marijuana officers on the welcoming reception, Trump did voice help for hashish rescheduling, state-level legalization and marijuana banking entry as he campaigned for his second time period.
“I’m overjoyed that Marc Fogel is free and that he, like Brittney Griner before him, is no longer facing severe punishment or being used as a political pawn over cannabis,” Morgan Fox, political director of NORML, informed Marijuana Moment on Wednesday.
“However, the Trump Administration—like the Biden Administration before it—would seem to be taking a ‘Russian prison bad, US prison good’ approach to cannabis consumers by spending political capital to secure the release of high-profile prisoners in foreign lands but not freeing more federal cannabis prisoners here and aggressively urging Congress to deschedule and regulate cannabis,” he mentioned. “Biden made a lot of progress on cannabis justice, but this is an area where Trump could quickly and easily distinguish himself from his predecessor by going even farther.”
“I sincerely hope he does so, and soon, as his appointment of people with outdated and punitive ideas about cannabis to powerful positions is cause for serious concern,” Fox mentioned, referencing sure Trump nominees similar to Terrance Cole, an anti-cannabis official who was named because the president’s decide to guide the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) at a crucial inflection level for federal marijuana coverage reform.
Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project (LPP), informed Marijuana Moment: “While we are glad to see policymakers like Speaker Johnson celebrating Marc’s homecoming, their prohibitionist hypocrisy to continue to keep Americans in the U.S. locked behind bars for cannabis does not go unnoticed.”
“We must honor Marc’s story by working together to pass common sense cannabis justice reforms,” he mentioned.
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Meanwhile, the Senate Appropriations Committee authorised a spending invoice final yr with an hooked up report demanding that the Biden administration explain why it has not escalated diplomatic efforts to secure the release Fogel.
While the part didn’t describe the particular particulars of Fogel’s case, the committee passage adopted the Senate approving a resolution calling for his release, emphasizing that he was a lawful medical hashish affected person in Pennsylvania utilizing state-legal merchandise as an opioid various.
The decision mentioned the 14-year sentence that Fogel obtained after being convicted of “large-scale drugs smuggling” over possession of a half-ounce of hashish is politically motivated and disproportionate, particularly when bearing in mind the truth that he was utilizing marijuana for medical functions in accordance with a physician’s advice.
The decision was launched in 2023 shortly after family of Fogel visited the White House to fulfill with high-level officers and likewise increase consideration to his case with members of Congress.
Meanwhile, a separate coalition of greater than 20 U.S. senators filed a distinct decision final yr condemning the arrests of American citizens in Russia, including Fogel.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul additionally despatched a letter to the secretary of state in 2023, imploring the administration to “immediately” escalate diplomatic efforts to secure Fogel’s return.
In 2022, greater than two dozen members of Congress known as on the State Department to step up diplomatic efforts to secure the release of Fogel, calling his incarceration over marijuana that he used to deal with continual ache “unconscionable.”
The White House underneath Biden mentioned that yr it was actively investigating Fogel’s case, and lawmakers have been holding the stress on to make sure it’s doing all that it might to safe his launch.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) additionally led a letter with other senators that equally requested the State Department to categorise the citizen, an American instructor, as “wrongfully detained.” That got here shortly after different bipartisan members of Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation once more pleaded with the State Department to escalate Fogel’s case, drawing parallels between his and Griner’s cannabis-related convictions.
Russia, for its half, has taken a very sturdy stance against reforming cannabis policy at the international level via the United Nations. And it condemned Canada for legalizing marijuana nationwide.
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Photo courtesy of Chris Wallis // Side Pocket Images.
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