October has been a good month for the marijuana industry, with the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF up about 13% so far against the S&P 500's 4% climb. Many pot stocks, including Canopy Growth (NYSE:CGC) and Curaleaf Holdings (OTC:CURLF), spiked to levels they haven't reached in months. It's not often that there's such widespread bullishness in the industry.
A senior adviser to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden recently reiterated that, if elected, his administration would pursue decriminalizing marijuana and automatically expunging prior cannabis convictions.
Symone Sanders discussed the campaign’s criminal justice agenda during an interview with MSNBC on Saturday, emphasizing that Biden and his vice presidential running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) will prioritize the modest drug policy reform proposals.
The Democratic and Republican national conventions barely touched on federal marijuana reform.
The Republicans didn’t even write a new platform.
And the Democratic platform fell short of supporting the efforts congressional Democrats have made in the past year toward federal marijuana legalization and cannabis banking reform.
Nevertheless, Washington DC lobbyists and industry experts expect Democratic lawmakers – regardless of the election outcome – to push forward with a pro-marijuana reform agenda.
Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his vice presidential running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) discussed marijuana decriminalization and other drug policy reforms during their first joint interview as a ticket this weekend.
Harris was pressed on her prosecutorial record, specifically as it concerns her previous call for more law enforcement officers in the streets. She talked about policing reform but went on to state that, under a Biden administration, there will be a “policy that is going to be about decriminalizing marijuana.”
The House Judiciary Committee will hold a markup Wednesday on legislation to decriminalize marijuana federally and reassess marijuana-related convictions, the panel announced Monday.
Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) will join other House Democrats, including Reps. Barbara Lee (Calif.) and Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), on Tuesday to highlight the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) has introduced similar legislation in the Senate.
Bills that would legalize and tax marijuana at the national level, and provide opportunities for people convicted of federal pot crimes to clear their records, were introduced July 23, 2019, in Congress.
The companion legislation in the House and Senate were introduced by Democratic Sen. Kamala Harris of California and U.S. Rep. Jarrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the powerful House Judiciary Committee.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler and Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Kamala Harris are introducing legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and repair “the damage done by the war on drugs” as cannabis reform gains steam in Congress.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or the MORE Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, decriminalizing the drug and allowing states to write their own policies. The legislation would require pot convictions to be expunged or resentenced.
Sen. Kamala Harris, a top-tier contender in the crowded 2020 Democratic primary field, introduced legislation Tuesday that would decriminalize and tax marijuana — a move that is at odds with the California Democrat's record.
People in Colorado still remember John Hickenlooper’s crack after the state legalized marijuana, a move he opposed: “Don’t break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly.”
But Mr. Hickenlooper, the governor at the time of the 2012 initiative allowing recreational use of cannabis, eventually changed his mind. He acknowledged that fears of increased use by children did not materialize, and he boasted of the tax revenues for social programs that regulated sales delivered.
A growing list of Democratic presidential contenders want the U.S. government to legalize marijuana, reflecting a nationwide shift as more Americans look favorably on cannabis.
Making marijuana legal at the federal level is the “smart thing to do,” says California Sen. Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor whose home state is the nation’s largest legal pot shop. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a prominent legalization advocate on Capitol Hill, says the war on drugs has been a “war on people.”