What is the Marijuana Justice Act: The proposal, called the Marijuana Justice Act, removes marijuana from the federal list of Schedule I narcotics – think peyote, heroin and, yeah, weed – which is known as descheduling. It also punishes states that disproportionately lock up minorities and the poor for marijuana offenses, by cutting off some of their federal dollars for building jails and prisons, as well as other areas.
You see these marijuana arrests happening so much in our country, targeting certain communities – poor communities, minority communities – targeting people with an illness, Booker said in his rollout on Facebook Live, which was viewed by more than 100,000 people.
What does this bill mean: “This is the single most far-reaching marijuana bill that’s ever been filed in either chamber of Congress,” Tom Angell, founder and chairman of the pro-pot group Marijuana Majority, said in statement. “More than just getting the federal government out of the way so that states can legalize without DEA harassment, this new proposal goes even further by actually punishing states that have bad marijuana laws. Polls increasingly show growing majority voter support for legalization, so this is something that more senators should be signing on to right away.”
If you would like to know more about the Marijuana Justice Act, click here to read another article that explores the bill more thoroughly.
They’re actually seeing positive things coming out of that experience, Now I believe the federal government should get out of the illegal marijuana business. – Sen. Cory Booker
What does the opposition say: “I do not support a national, a federal effort to decriminalize marijuana,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins tells Rolling Stone. “We’re in the midst of an opioid crisis in this country and I think the last thing we need is for the federal government to send a signal that marijuana should be legalized across this country.”
“I’m not there. I think there’s a lot about marijuana we don’t know,” California Sen. Dianne Feinstein tells Rolling Stone. “I think marijuana has potential dangers to it. I think they need to be looked at – calibrated. I think we need to be concerned about young people, without judgement, particularly in cars. Particularly on Saturday night, smoking marijuana, candidly.”
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