Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke detailed a plan Thursday to legalize marijuana across the United States.
Part of the plan included introducing taxes on marijuana sales that would fund stipends to give to offenders who had served time in prison for non-violent marijuana related crimes.
“We need to not only end the prohibition on marijuana but also repair the damage done to the communities of color disproportionately locked up in our criminal justice system or locked out of opportunity because of the War on Drugs,” the former Texas congressman said in a statement that detailed his plan.
The proposed regulatory tax on the newly legal narcotic, O’Rourke says, would fund a “drug war justice grant” that could benefit those who served time for low-level marijuana offenses. The amount of money received by the recipients would correlate with the amount of time they served for their crimes.
O’Rourke, 46, who is among the most ardent in calling for the decriminalization of marijuana, suggested the tax money could also be used to support ex-marijuana convicts find work, homes, and even break into the legal marijuana trade. O’Rourke says the marijuana tax revenue could also benefit substance abuse centers.
He has called for the decriminalization of unauthorized border crossings, also called for marijuana offenses to be wiped from the criminal records of illegal immigrants so that those infractions would not prevent the pursuit of American naturalization and citizenship.
[Also read: Beto O’Rourke: Fines will ‘compel’ AR-15 owners to turn their guns in]
