Chuck Schumer is Introducing Bill to Decriminalize Marijuana
(The AEGIS Alliance) – Charles (Chuck) Schumer (D-NY) the Senate Minority Leader, said on Thursday that he is planning to introduce a bill which would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level in the United States.
Schumer said to Vice News that this legislation is going to be released within a week. This bill would remove marijuana from the DEA’s controlled substances list, and give states the ultimate authority regarding how to regulate cannabis.
“The legislation is long overdue based on, you know, a bunch of different facts,” Schumer said. “I’ve seen too many people’s lives ruined because they had small amounts of marijuana and served time in jail much too long.”
“If smoking marijuana doesn’t hurt anybody else, why shouldn’t we allow people to do it and not make it criminal,” he mentioned.
Schumer said to Vice that the legislation would in effect allow the federal government to “regulate marijuana advertising in the same way it does alcohol and tobacco” for ensuring the industry’s ads don’t target children.
Schumer isn’t the first Democratic senator to make a push to loosen federal marijuana policies.
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) had introduced the Marijuana Justice Act back in August of 2017. This legislation would remove marijuana’s status as a Schedule one drug under the Controlled Substance Act while requiring federal courts to expunge records of Americans who have previous marijuana convictions that relate to possession or use.
Senators Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), have all shown support for the Marijuana Justice Act. A matched bill in the House of Representatives also has over 20 cosponsors.
Featured Image: CC/Flickr/Senate Democrats
Kyle James Lee – The AEGIS Alliance – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
