Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he is working on legislation to legalize marijuana, suggesting that by next year, “our country will have made progress in addressing the massive overcriminalization of marijuana.”
Schumer, a New York Democrat, did not indicate that the Senate would vote to legalize marijuana. It would require at least 10 GOP votes to beat back a filibuster.
Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Wyden of Oregon, both Democrats, are working on legislation to decriminalize marijuana by taking it off the federal list of drugs that are crimes to possess.
“Sens. Booker, Wyden, and I are going to continue to work on our legislation, and in the near future, we hope to have a draft of a comprehensive reform effort — not only to end the federal prohibition on marijuana, but to ensure restorative justice, protect public health, and implement responsible taxes and regulations,” Schumer said.
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Democrats have said the criminalization of marijuana hurts minorities the most and that legalizing it has not hurt several states that now allow for the recreational sale and possession of cannabis.
“The doom-and-gloom predictions made when states like Colorado or Oregon went forward and decriminalized and legalized never occurred,” Booker said. “In state after state, through ballot initiatives and constitutional amendments, the American people are sending a clear message that they want this policy changed.”
Schumer wants the bill to expunge convictions for marijuana possession, which Democrats say have hurt communities of color, low-income people, and veterans.
April 20 is considered an unofficial holiday associated with marijuana.
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“It’s as appropriate a time as any to take a hard look at our laws that have overcriminalized the use of marijuana and put it on par with heroin, LSD, and other narcotics that bear little or no resemblance in their effects either on individuals or on society more broadly,” Schumer said.
