Bernie Sanders announces he will co-sponsor Marijuana Justice Act after years of work on marijuana policy. Years ago, Sen. Sanders introduced the first Senate bill to reschedule marijuana. This legislation also would have stopped private companies from running jails.
Sanders has been a longtime advocate for prison reform, and through it, marijuana policy change. When he ran for President, the Senator became the first serious candidate who said he would vote in favor of legalization.
Sanders has continued to champion legalization in 2018. Earlier this year, the Senator asked those who supported him in his presidential run to petition Congress. Sanders wrote in his mass email: “Marijuana prohibition is part of a larger failed war on drugs that has led to the great national crisis of mass incarceration.”