With a Senate bill to federally legalize marijuana expected to be introduced imminently, a key subcommittee chaired by one of the measure’s prime sponsors has scheduled a hearing for next week on cannabis reform and the harms of criminalization.
The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, chaired by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), will meet on July 26 for a meeting titled “Decriminalizing Cannabis at the Federal Level: Necessary Steps to Address Past Harms.”
Schumer stressed to rally attendees that he’s working to win bipartisan support for the forthcoming bill he plans to introduce with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).
“I have invited every U.S. senator—every Democrat, every Republican—to come meet with us and tell us why they won’t support the bill or whether they will, and I’m making good progress,” Schumer said. “I’ve already met with six Republicans, so we can get 10 [and] we can get the 60 votes we need on the floor of the Senate to pass legislation that is so important.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and New Jersey’s Cory Booker released a letter Thursday asking senators whose states have legalized marijuana and those who sit on committees with oversight of federal drug policy to share their thoughts as the three attempt to perfect the legislation.
“Hundreds of millions of Americans live in states that have legalized cannabis in some form while it remains illegal at the federal level,” they wrote.
In a fundraising email to his list of supporters on Friday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) laid out what he called “Democrats’ bold agenda for change this year.”
After first describing plans to tackle climate change and income inequality, Schumer turned to cannabis.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) will chair the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism. A press release on the appointment prominently touts two marijuana bills the senator has sponsored.
The Marijuana Justice Act to federally deschedule cannabis and promote social justice is the very first piece of legislation cited in the release after it notes the senator’s work to make “championing reforms of America’s broken criminal justice system a top priority.” Also mentioned is his separate CARERS Act, which would protect state medical marijuana programs.
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow Senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden formally announced Monday that they are working together to advance comprehensive marijuana reform legislation.
Schumer talked last week about pushing for legislation that would legalize marijuana federally but allow states the freedom to choose their own direction.
In an interview with former NBA basketball player Al Harrington, Schumer also discussed directing tax revenues to minority communities most affected by the war on drugs.
In the legal market, licensed companies are currently sitting on a surplus of roughly one million pounds, enough to keep the state stoned at current levels for six years. Meanwhile, Oregon’s illicit growers just keep doing what they’ve always done, supplying unlicensed cannabis to appreciative consumers in states where a combination of restrictive laws and poor climate make for a net cannabis deficit.
A 2018 regional cannabis summit created a template that East Coast governors used in the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Friday, US senator Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) introduced legislation to legalize marijuana at the federal level—a bill called SR 420, of course. Thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have so far expanded access to weed in some form. But with federal law lagging behind, the states have landed in a tangle of rules that are at times contradictory, self-defeating, and lacking in scientific support.
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’ support of the legislation drew praise from cannabis activists. “Leaders in the Democratic Party are increasingly recognizing that leading the charge on legalization is not only good policy, but good politics,” said NORML’s Justin Strekal in a statement. “The constituencies which the party claims to stand for are the ones who have most felt the weight and lifelong consequences of marijuana criminalization.”