In a Twitter video this week, New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, who is the Senate Majority Leader, has addressed that he wants to make the “long overdue” issue of marijuana reform a priority for Congress.
The Senator said it will provide “justice” for those who are harmed by strict marijuana laws.
The video features a conversation between Schumer and Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey and Ron Ryden of Oregon regarding the ills of marijuana laws.
Schumer says the legislation reform will focus on small businesses, especially in communities that get the brunt of harsh cannabis laws.
“We don’t want the big tobacco companies and the big liquor companies to swoop in and take over,” Schumer said. “The legislation we have will make sure that smaller businesses, businesses in communities of color, get the advantage because communities of color have paid the price for decades. They should at least get something back.”
“For decades,” he added, “young men who were arrested with a small amount of marijuana in their pockets served long prison terms and then they had a felony record and could never make themselves right.”
“I want to take it off the federal list that makes it as serious a drug as heroin or cocaine,” Schumer exclaimed.
According to the Senate Majority leader, legislation was “long overdue.”
Wyden, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has said that it is “long past time to address the harms of the failed war on drugs.”
“My state was one of the first, and people went to the polls and they said this marijuana prohibition, folks, just doesn’t work. And certainly communities of color have been devastated by these failed policies,” he added.
“I don’t think they’re going to accept any more dawdling from the federal government. It’s kind of like the federal government has been in a time warp,” Wyden further said, “We’ve got a real shot now at making progress.”
”It’s not just about creating an environment where states are legalizing, it’s about restorative justice, and that’s a number of things,” Booker commented.
“That’s, one, making sure that we expunge records. Don’t talk about free adult use of marijuana without talking about expunging records. Number two, the tax money—this is going to be a multibillion dollar business. Those tax receipts should be reinvested in those in those communities,” the New Jersey Senator said.