The very first Democratic debate happened this week and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker (D) said he was “absolutely disappointed” that the topic of marijuana legalization was not brought up.
“I am absolutely disappointed that wasn’t an issue when you see voters turning out this issue all over the country,” Booker told Business Insider.
Booker was the man behind the Marijuana Justice Act that was introduced this year. The Senator remarked that “as a guy who has one of the boldest bills” he would have liked to share his proposal with voters tuning in from across the country.
“I would like to see the federal government end it’s making marijuana illegal and pull back and let the states do what they want,” Booker explained. “But I am also one of those people that thinks you cannot talk about marijuana legalization if in the same sentence you’re not talking about expunging the records of those Americans who have criminal convictions for doing things that two of the last three presidents admitted to doing.”
The Marijuana Justice Act was introduced in February and calls for marijuana to be removed from the federal list of controlled substances. It would also expunge previous marijuana-related federal convictions.