From Tribune News Service
WASHINGTON – Senate majority leader Charles E. Schumer on Wednesday unveiled bill that would decriminalize cannabis and lift federal penalties related to the drug, which has been legalized in states across the country.
The bill would erase the records of nonviolent marijuana offenders and allow those currently serving their sentences to come to trial. Federal tax revenue would back a trust fund to invest in communities hardest hit by drug enforcement.
Proponents were divided over aspects of the bill, which Sen. Cory Booker, DN.J., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore, co-sponsored. Polls show the vast majority of Americans support some form of marijuana legalization, and the issue has gained momentum, especially among advocates of treating veterans’ mental health problems.
“As my colleagues and I have already said, the war on drugs was really a war against people, especially people of color,” said Schumer.
Booker highlighted the hypocrisy of Congressional and Presidential candidates who willingly admit their history of marijuana use, while low-income and black people “bear the mark” of criminal convictions.
“It’s a sad reality,” he said. “Lives are destroyed every day.”
Schumer said the next step is to seek feedback from stakeholders, many of which were quick to take a stand on Wednesday.
“It is time for lawmakers to align federal law with the laws of the growing number of states that have legalized the plant, and it is time for lawmakers to enable a federal structure that enables the cannabis trade so that responsible consumers can get high quality products, inexpensive cannabis grown right here in America without fear of arrest and imprisonment, ”said Erik Altieri, executive director of advocacy group NORML.
Maritza Perez, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, called on lawmakers to lift the rules to maintain drug testing for federal employees and to exclude those convicted of “queens” from deleting their records.
“In order for this law to truly end the marijuana ban in a truly comprehensive way and begin to repair the egregious damage of the past, we cannot continue to make room for some to be excluded under laws that were unfair and racist to begin with . “She said in a statement.
But another group, Smart Approaches to Marijuana, called for a more conscious approach.
“Decriminalizing minor marijuana possession and deleting past records has been an important part of President Joe Biden’s platform and should be the way forward, but we cannot allow the interests of the for-profit marijuana industry and its investors to enter the discussion murky, “said Kevin Sabet, the organization’s president and a former senior drug policy adviser to the Obama administration, said. “As we did with COVID, we must heed science and be careful about normalizing and promoting marijuana use.”
The bill would end years of conflicting federal regulations in states that legalized cannabis and, for the first time, enact regulations for a booming marijuana market. To date, recreational adult marijuana use is legal in 18 states, Washington, DC, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands. Medical use is legal in 37 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the US Virgin Islands.
According to the bill, people will no longer face deportation for cannabis use. Health care providers with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indian Health Service could prescribe medical marijuana.
The law would not override laws in states where marijuana remains illegal, and it would uphold bans on shipping large quantities of marijuana into those states.
The law would impose a 10% excise tax on cannabis products for the first full year of entry into force, gradually increasing to 25% thereafter. The proceeds would seek to redeem the war on drugs by investing in legal aid, re-entry services, and corporate loans.
The Comptroller General would be tasked with investigating other areas in need of change, including whether to replace the word marijuana with cannabis in the federal code to reduce stigma.
Some products would still be banned, including products that combine cannabis with alcohol, caffeine, or nicotine. Electronic delivery or vaping devices would be banned from offering flavors to avoid a recurrence of the teenage vaping epidemic, fueled in part by e-cigarette marketing.
The draft leaves some open questions about how marijuana should be regulated, including how potency should be measured and whether new marijuana products should be premarket tested by the Food and Drug Administration before they hit store shelves.
Despite strong support from the top lawmakers, legislation faces significant hurdles. Biden’s decades of opposition to legalization pose an obstacle to the passage of Schumer’s bill. Although Biden campaigned for decriminalization of marijuana possession, news broke in March that the White House was telling young workers for previous marijuana use Marginalized.
“The White House knows that we are introducing this law and we intend to show them the bill and ask them to support it,” Schumer said on Wednesday.
In April, Schumer told Politico that he would not wait for the president’s support to move the bill forward in the Senate.
Senator Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said the Democratic effort amounted to “putting the cart before the horse,” and said his previous research bill with Senator Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., Should be the first step towards full legalization.
“It is important that we have solid research and fully understand the pros and cons of using marijuana, especially among young people and in the long term,” he said in a statement.
Late last year, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would remove marijuana from the federal controlled substances list and redress the war on drugs through similar criminal justice changes, investment in social services, and corporate loans. The bill was reintroduced in May by Justice Committee Chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler, DN.Y.
House lawmakers are also trying to facilitate research into List I drugs in the Department of Health and Human Services bill. The House Budgets Committee is expected to approve the bill on Thursday after a subcommittee tabled it on Monday.