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Why YOU Should Be A Democrat
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2021-07-14 at 1:59 PM UTCThe New York Times
In a Milestone, Schumer Will Propose Federal Decriminalization of Marijuana
Nicholas Fandos
WASHINGTON — Senator Chuck Schumer of New York plans to propose legislation on Wednesday to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, putting his weight as majority leader behind a growing movement to unwind the decades-old war on drugs.
The cannabis bill faces an uphill climb in the Senate.
The draft bill, called the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and begin regulating and taxing it, placing federal rules on a burgeoning industry that has faced years of uncertainty. Though states would still be allowed to set their own marijuana laws, businesses and individuals in states that have legalized its use would be free for the first time to sell and consume it without the risk of federal punishment.
The proposal would also try to make recompense to communities of color and the poor for damage from years of restrictive federal drug policy. It calls for immediately expunging nonviolent marijuana-related arrests and convictions from federal records and would earmark new tax revenue for restorative justice programs intended to lift up communities affected by “the failed federal prohibition of cannabis.”
The bill aims to “finally turn the page on this dark chapter in American history and begin righting these wrongs,” said Senator Cory Booker, Democrat of New Jersey, who wrote the bill with Mr. Schumer and Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon and the chairman of the Finance Committee.
The legislation faces an uphill battle in the Senate, where Republicans are opposed, and it is unlikely to become law in the near future. President Biden has not endorsed it, and some moderate Democrats are likely to balk at the implications of decriminalizing a drug that has been policed and stigmatized for so long.
But in the arc of the public’s rapid reconsideration of marijuana laws, the presentation on Wednesday was a remarkable milestone for legalization proponents. The suggestion that the Senate’s top leader and the chairman of the powerful Finance Committee would sponsor major decriminalization legislation would have been fantastical in the not-too-distant past.
In a speech on April 20, the unofficial holiday for marijuana smokers, Mr. Schumer said he was trying to prod Washington off the sidelines of a debate in which much of the country was already engaged. Public opinion polling suggests that nearly 70 percent of Americans support legalizing marijuana. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use, and 18 states plus D.C. allow recreational use by adults.
Mr. Schumer has also made no secret that he believes Democrats stand to benefit politically from embracing the legalization push, particularly with young voters.
“Hopefully, the next time this unofficial holiday of 4/20 rolls around, our country will have made progress in addressing the massive overcriminalization of marijuana in a meaningful and comprehensive way,” he said in April.
The senators were expected to detail their plans later Wednesday morning at a news conference at the Capitol.
They are expected to propose empowering the Food and Drug Administration and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau at the Treasury Department to begin regulating the production, distribution and sale of marijuana, removing the Drug Enforcement Administration from its current oversight role. Among other implications, the changes would allow marijuana companies already operating in states where it is legal to gain full access to the United States banking system.
The legislation would gradually institute a federal excise tax like the one on alcohol and tobacco sales, eventually as high as 25 percent for big businesses, allowing the federal government to benefit from sales that came close to $20 billion in 2020. The revenue would then be funneled back to communities most affected by federal drug policy and to fund expanded medical research into cannabis that is currently limited by its status as a controlled substance.
One provision, for instance, would establish a cannabis justice office at the Justice Department to help fund job training, legal aid and help with re-entry after incarceration. Another program would promote loans to small cannabis businesses owned by members of racially or economically marginalized groups to try to ensure that communities that suffered disproportionately under the war on drugs are not left out of the gold rush that has accompanied legalization.
But the bill would aim to make other, more direct attempts to compensate for the impacts of years of aggressive policing. In addition to expunging past arrests and convictions, it would entitle those who are currently serving sentences for nonviolent federal drug crime to a court hearing to reconsider their sentences. And if enacted, the federal government would no longer be able to discriminate against marijuana users seeking federal housing, food or health benefits.
The Democratic-led House passed similar legislation in December, with a handful of Republicans joining to vote in favor. The vote was the first and only time either chamber had endorsed the legalization of cannabis, but the bill died at the end of the last Congress. House leaders plan to pass an updated version in the coming months.
Passage through the Senate is likely to be more tricky. Mr. Schumer would need to assemble 60 votes, meaning he would need the support of at least 10 Republicans. Though libertarian-leaning Republicans have generally supported ending the prohibition of marijuana, party leaders are likely to oppose the Democrats’ plan, particularly with its emphasis on restorative justice and government intervention in the cannabis industry.
But opposition is not limited to Republicans. Mr. Schumer would have to persuade moderate Democrats who are uncomfortable with the implications of decriminalization to support it.
Mr. Biden supports decriminalizing marijuana and pulling back the war on drugs, but his views are generally more conservative than many Democrats’ and he has not endorsed Mr. Schumer’s proposal. His White House made headlines this spring for pushing out five staff members over their use of marijuana. -
2021-07-14 at 2 PM UTCbecause weed man
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2021-07-14 at 2:06 PM UTCso now democrate is now synonymous with ...
drugs ?
mondo cunt. -
2021-07-14 at 2:20 PM UTCtelemundo
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2021-07-14 at 3 PM UTC
Originally posted by stl1 The draft bill, called the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and begin regulating and taxing it, placing federal rules on a burgeoning industry that has faced years of uncertainty. Though states would still be allowed to set their own marijuana laws, businesses and individuals in states that have legalized its use would be free for the first time to sell and consume it without the risk of federal punishment.
Just stop fucking arresting people. The regulations are always bullshit, the market is not a free market and you will never get the same products legally. There has to be a new supply chain because of FDA culture the government is unwilling to allow a mom and pop cannabis grower to make their own edibles or concentrates unless they have a license.
I have seen it first hand, the cottage industry of cannabis has been completely destroyed and now it's all highly regulated and corporate.
The government should just fuck off when it comes to drugs. If something gets you high it automatically gets scrutiny and the most intense regulation because society doesn't understand drug culture when it's not presented in a big pharma teevee ad.
Yeah cannabis should totally be treated the same as alcohol and tobacco which cost the system way more. I love not being able to buy menthols because a teenager smoked them once 10 years ago now they are banned forever
clove cigs are also banned. Fuck legal regulations
The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2021-07-14 at 3:08 PM UTCit costs less money to not arrest people than it does to make all those gay regulations and laws. Just take it off the controlled substance act and then FUCK OFF
I want to see the innovation that comes from a non regulated legal cannabis industry. Alcohol and Tobacco industries never had to deal with that, the regulation was reactionary. it was legal to drink and drive in the 70's for example.
But with cannabis it was already illegal and debated the "driving while stoned" issue years before it was ever considered to be legal. The safety culture of society is very anti capitalist and it's digusting to anyone trying to make their living doing this and constantly blocked by retard regulations and OH NO WHAT IF MY TEENAGER DRIVES STONED!!! like they can't/aren't doing that already??
Society's answer to a kid doing something dangerous is MORE GOVERNMENT REGULATION. Ban all toys with sharp edges!
Maybe the reason kids would rather be on their iphones all day because everything good and fun in the world got banned years ago, there is nothing left. The world is dull and shitty for no reason and they know it.
Maybe that's the reason these kids keep getting stoned and driving because THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO DO and now they can't even do that. At least there's still tide pods!! you can't regulate tide pods and benadryl man!!!
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2021-07-14 at 3:12 PM UTCIt's a two party system, and both parties have the same agenda.
It's a big club, and OP isn't in it. He thinks he is though, and that's sad.The following users say it would be alright if the author of this post didn't die in a fire! -
2021-07-14 at 3:14 PM UTC
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2021-07-14 at 3:21 PM UTC
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2021-07-14 at 3:43 PM UTC
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2021-07-14 at 3:44 PM UTCI think they recently made menthol illegal too
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2021-07-14 at 3:49 PM UTC
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2021-07-14 at 3:58 PM UTCWeed supported me till the democrats got involved
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2021-07-14 at 4:10 PM UTC
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2021-07-14 at 5:37 PM UTCThat is one of the few things i agree with demorats about
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2021-07-14 at 5:38 PM UTC
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2021-07-14 at 8:08 PM UTC
Originally posted by the man who put it in my hood That's because you're a fucking retard boot licker that can't think for yourself
im quite the opposite of a boot licker you tranny fucking retard
I think it should go back to the days where if your on my property without my permission, i could shoot you. You steal, person you stole from could shoot you and nobody talked shit to anyone out of fear of being shot.
The good old days -
2021-07-14 at 8:24 PM UTC
Originally posted by cigreting im quite the opposite of a boot licker you tranny fucking retard
I think it should go back to the days where if your on my property without my permission, i could shoot you. You steal, person you stole from could shoot you and nobody talked shit to anyone out of fear of being shot.
The good old days
I would just snipe you from the bushes, pussy ass faggot and burn your house down. Your garbage life isn't even worth riffling through -
2021-07-14 at 8:28 PM UTCso you want a time machine.... a hot tub time machine. heard
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2021-07-14 at 9:29 PM UTC
Originally posted by the man who put it in my hood it costs less money to not arrest people than it does to make all those gay regulations and laws. Just take it off the controlled substance act and then FUCK OFF
The problem with legalizing weed is that our government only knows how to tighten the screws, promulgate new regulations, pass more laws. Every year there are thousands and thousands of new laws and regulations, many of them written by teams of lawyers to be purposely opaque but (these guys are professionals) but containing cleverly disguised money spigots for their employers or Israel.
Our politicians (the cheapest on the planet) play their role. But no one knows how to undo laws. It only works in one direction. Read Maryland's regulations on how to obtain a license to grow weed. It's stuff like:
II(a)(2)(D) In the event applicant has previously obtained authorization as described in Sec. II(a)(2)(C)(iii) for either of the Exceptions provided for in Secs. II(a)(1)(C)(i) or Secs. II(a)(1)(C)(ii) or any other subparagraph excluding this one in Sec. II(a)(1)(D), applicant shall notify in writing the appropriate Commission as described herein and, pending notification of Active Status from the State of Maryland and relevant local oversight bodies, attest and affirm that
(i) no cannabis plant is visible through any street-facing window in any structure in which said plants are grown if that structure is within 100 feet of any route commonly used by pedestrians;
(ii) no cannabis grower etc. etc. etc.
They can't just say, um, you know that law that makes weed illegal? Strike it.
