Yesterday, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders signed onto a bill introduced last year by Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and punish states that have harsh marijuana laws Thursday. The bill would remove marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of most dangerous substances and would eliminate federal criminal penalties related to trafficking, growing, distributing and possessing pot. Sanders says the country should “end this absurdity” of classifying marijuana in the same category of substances like heroin, and that “nobody I know thinks that it makes any sense at all that under the federal Controlled Substances Act, you have … marijuana as a Schedule I drug alongside of heroin, which is a killer drug,”
Sanders is the 3rd co-sponsor of Booker's Marijuana Justice Act. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., often mentioned as a possible 2020 presidential candidate, also joined Booker’s effort. Nine states have some form of legalized marijuana policies, including Vermont, where possession of small amounts will be legal for adults starting later this year. Twenty-nine states have medical marijuana systems.
See Sanders & Booker joint video announcement below.
Also on Thursday of this week, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, announced that he will soon be introducing a separate bill to decriminalize marijuana, marking a significant shift in policy for the Democratic leader. Schumer says that legislation to increase access to marijuana is “long overdue” and that far “too many people” have been affected by the government’s crackdown on the drug. Schumer called Attorney General Sessions’ decision to rescind the Cole memo, effectively limiting federal prosecutions of groups or individuals who sold pot in a manner legal under state laws, “a very bad one.”
As an aside, last week former House Speaker John Boehner joined the board of Acreage Holdings, a firm that cultivates, processes and dispenses marijuana.
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