It was a momentous day on Wednesday as Senate Democrats introduced a bill for the first time to end the federal prohibition of marijuana.
The legislation would remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances and end disproportionate harm to communities of color.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to use his “clout” to make decriminalization a Senate priority.
“This is monumental,” Schumer said to reporters. “At long last we are taking steps in the Senate to right the wrongs of the failed war on drugs.”
“The war on drugs has really been a war on people, particularly people of color,” Schumer said. “The waste of human resources because of the historic over-criminalization has been one of the great historical wrongs for the last decades and we are going to change it.”
The draft bill is being proposed with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.
It aims to expunge criminal records and create banking systems that give small and minority businesses a seat at the table.
Wyden called the bill, “cannabis common sense.”
“Lives are being destroyed every single day and the hypocrisy of this is that, right here in the Capitol now, people running for Congress, people running for Senate, people running for president of the United States, who readily admit that they’ve used marijuana, but we have children in this country people all over this nation, our veterans, black and brown people, low income people, now bearing the stain of having a criminal conviction for doing things that half of the last four presidents admitted to doing,” said Senator Booker.
“The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act will ensure that Americans — especially Black and Brown Americans — no longer have to fear arrest or be barred from public housing or federal financial aid for higher education for using cannabis in states where it’s legal,” the discussion draft reads.
“State-compliant cannabis businesses will finally be treated like other businesses and allowed access to essential financial services, like bank accounts and loans. Medical research will no longer be stifled.”
“The bill automatically expunges federal non-violent marijuana crimes and allows an individual currently serving time in federal prison for non-violent marijuana crimes to petition a court for resentencing,” the draft also states.
Many Republicans, led by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., oppose legalization.
