Ahead of November’s pivotal general election, Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman continues to pound away at his U.S. Senate campaign to beat out Trump-backed television personality and former cardiologist, Mehmet Oz. 

One of Fetterman’s longtime issues is the decriminalization of marijuana in the U.S., an idea he hopes to speak with President Joe Biden about once in office. 

Biden will be making important visits in the key swing states of Pennsylvania and Wisconsin over Labor Day weekend in hopes of keeping and gaining support, as Democrats look to continue their recent streak of wins. It’s momentum they hope to take into November’s election that can decide the trajectory of the country moving forward and into the 2024 presidential election. 

In anticipation of the president’s visit, Fetterman called on Biden to decriminalize marijuana “prior to his visit to Pittsburgh.” A huge marijuana advocate, Fetterman hopes the president will entertain the idea as Biden is also expected to join in on the city’s annual Labor Day Parade next Monday, Sept. 5. 

“It’s long past time that we finally decriminalize marijuana — The President needs to use his executive authority to begin descheduling marijuana, I would love to see him do this prior to his visit to Pittsburgh. This is just common sense and Pennsylvanians overwhelmingly support decriminalizing marijuana,” Fetterman said in a statement issued on Monday, Aug. 29.

In the same statement, the Democratic nominee went after Oz and his camp over their antagonizing views on marijuana that include equating it to crime. 

“Are we supposed to believe that neither he nor any members of his staff have ever used marijuana? As mayor of Braddock, I made it my mission to combat serious crime. I know firsthand what real crime looks like. Marijuana does not fit the bill,” Fetterman said. “It’s time to end the hypocrisy on this issue once and for all.”

A campaign spokesperson for Fetterman added that he and Biden would speak on the issue during his visit on Labor Day during the city’s annual parade for the holiday weekend.

Also on Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by reporters during a briefing about Fetterman’s comments on marijuana decriminalization and answered that the White House did not have anything to say regarding executive action on marijuana. 

“The President supports leaving decisions regarding legalization for recreational use up to the states, rescheduling cannabis as a Schedule II drug so researchers can study its positive and negative impacts and at the federal level, he supports decriminalizing marijuana use and automatically expunging any prior criminal records,” she said. 

Lack of major policy changes for marijuana legalization has been a subject of anger and opposition from some political leaders and activists nationwide. The President still currently opposes full legalization. 

Jean-Pierre did say in Monday’s briefing that the President had granted three pardons and commuted 75 sentences in an executive action issued in April 2022. Still, mostly Democrats have pushed for more executive action on the matter. Most recently, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent the Biden Administration a letter calling on the President to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I substance to a Schedule II. 

They also pushed for Biden to pardon all convicted nonviolent marijuana offenders, something they had already urged the administration to do in a separate letter from November, 2021. 

“We called on President Biden to use his authority to pardon all individuals convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses, whether formerly or currently incarcerated,” the letter read. “To date, we have not received a response to this letter.”

“We commend President Biden’s recent pardons and commutations of 78 people, including nine with non-violent cannabis related offenses. However, much more has to be done to address the racist and harmful legacy of cannabis policies on Black and Brown communities,” the senators continued. “The Administration’s failure to coordinate a timely review of its cannabis policy is harming thousands of Americans, slowing research, and depriving Americans of their ability to use marijuana for medical or other purposes.”