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Leading Senate Democrats are set to introduce a new bill that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, taking a more aggressive stance on reform than the White House.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, and Senator Cory Booker have proposed removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, which would erase the records of those who have committed non-violent weed-related offenses and would set up a tax structure.
“The war on drugs has been a war on people – especially people of color,” a summary of the legislation provided to Yahoo News by Wyden’s office said on Wednesday. “The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act aims to end decades of damage to communities of color by removing cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances and empowering states to enforce their own cannabis laws. “
With tens of millions of Americans now living in states where recreational marijuana is legal for adults, the contrast between federal and state laws becomes increasingly stark as some companies make millions from the drug. while other Americans are jailed for cannabis-related crimes. The bill would allow states to maintain restrictions on the drug if they so choose.
“We legalized adult use in 2014,” Wyden told NBC News in an interview Wednesday, referring to his home state of Oregon, “and, oh my god, the skeptics have said that Western civilization was about to come to an end What we saw in terms of the real facts was that we saw more than six times the projected income.
The bill’s path in the Senate is murky, as legislative filibuster would require at least 10 Republicans to join Democrats to vote to pass it. When asked by NBC News if they have the votes, Schumer said they are working on it and marijuana reform is among their many priorities. In December 2020, the House passed the Reinvestment and Removal of Marijuana Opportunities Act (MORE) – which contained similar elements to the new Senate proposal – but it was not put to a vote in the Senate so controlled by Republicans.
The trio of senators met with marijuana legalization advocacy groups earlier this year, and a number of those groups told Yahoo News last week that they appreciated the efforts of lawmakers on the issue.
“It’s time for lawmakers to bring federal law into line with the laws of the growing number of states that have legalized the plant, and it’s time for lawmakers to facilitate a federal structure that allows for the cannabis trade so that responsible consumers can get high quality. , low-cost cannabis grown here in America without fear of arrest and incarceration, ”said Erik Altieri, executive director of the National Organization for Marijuana Law Reform, in a statement supporting the legislation.
Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, released a statement on the proposal Wednesday morning, saying, “This new bill puts the cart before the horse. It is important that we have solid research and fully understand the pros and cons of using marijuana, especially among young people and in the long term. Grassley is the most senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Polls show that about two-thirds of Americans support the legalization of marijuana, including the majority in battlefield states where it remains illegal for adult recreational use, such as Florida, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Advocates of legalization also point to the racial disparity in cannabis-related arrests, as noted in a 2020 report from the American Civil Liberties Union.
“There is an urgency to this because there are people all over our country who are seeing their lives destroyed – they are injured,” said Booker, whose 2020 Democratic presidential primary campaign focused on reform. of criminal justice, in Wednesday’s interview with NBC News.
The New Jersey senator clashed with Joe Biden over the matter during a presidential primary debate in November 2019.
“I have a lot of respect for the vice president,” Booker said of his rival at the time. “He made me swear in my office and he’s a hero. This week I hear him say literally, “I don’t think we should legalize marijuana. I thought maybe you were high when you said it.
Biden responded that he supported decriminalizing the drug and removing records, but wanted more studies on the long-term effects of the drug before legalizing it. During his decades in the Senate, Biden was known as a proponent of the war on drugs and harsh penalties for offenders. Just before the debate exchange with Booker, he said more study was needed to see if marijuana was a “entry” drug, as his main opponents in the Democratic presidential primaries called for full legalization. In interviews and subsequent events, Biden attempted to revisit the comments.
Since taking office, the Biden administration has not been aggressive on cannabis policy. In March, the Daily Beast reported that the White House had punished dozens of young employees for using marijuana. On April 20, Press Secretary Jen Psaki would not pledge that Biden would sign a bill that would legalize drugs, claiming instead that his position remained the decriminalization and reprogramming of the Controlled Substances Act, a a position that some reform supporters have called “impractical and misleading at best.” at worst.”
On the same day, Schumer delivered a speech on the subject, saying: “I hope that next time this unofficial 4/20 holiday rolls around, our country has made progress in the fight against the massive over-criminalization of marijuana significantly and comprehensively. “
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