President Biden has only granted 1.4% of clemency petitions submitted. There are four months left for cannabis justice before his term ends.
With the president's decision to drop out of the race, he has effectively begun a longer lame-duck period, which is historically when most presidential clemency grants have occurred.
I suspect that if he intends a mass pardon he will do it after the election. Common sense says that there is more risk of negative campaign influence then positive in this case, and why would he risk it?
The difference here is pardoning [clutches pearls] criminals. Which will be spun to dangerous, convicted, surely "seriously bad guys" that plead down to a lesser charge.
He can't pardon people from state crimes, all he can do is pardon from federal. Once reclassified, he can "urge" Congress to write legislation to superceed state laws, be he isn't the the legislative branch.