Bernie Sanders Joins Cory Bookers Marijuana Justice Act to Federally Legalize Weed

[babylonsister]

Bernie Sanders Joins Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act to Federally Legalize Weed
By Benjamin Fearnow On 4/19/18 at 11:26 AM


Bernie Sanders is the latest senator to sign on to a bill that would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and punish states that continue criminalizing weed.

Several potential 2020 presidential contenders in the Senate are now co-sponsors of the Marijuana Justice Act, a weed-decriminalization bill first drafted by Democratic Senator Cory Booker, of New Jersey, in August 2017. Senator Sanders, the Independent from Vermont, signed his name as a co-sponsor Thursday, joining Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, the New York Democrat, who political pundits say might be considering her own chase for the Democratic nomination for president along with Booker and Sanders.

"Leaders in the Democratic Party are increasingly recognizing that leading the charge on legalization is not only good policy, but good politics," Justin Strekal, political director of NORML, told Forbes. "The constituencies which the party claims to stand for are the ones who have most felt the weight of prohibition and the lifelong consequences of prohibition."

The Marijuana Justice Act takes several major actions to decriminalize marijuana at both the state and federal levels. First, the proposed bill’s removal of weed from the 1970 Controlled Substances Act would allow individual states to legalize the drug, currently listed as a Schedule I illegal narcotic alongside cocaine, heroin and LSD. Second, the bill would hold federal funding from states that continue to criminalize marijuana and inordinately prosecute minorities. Last, the bill creates a Treasury federal fund that could be used for projects to reinvest and rebuild low-income through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

more...

http://www.newsweek.com/bernie-sanders-marijuana-marijuana-justice-act-cory-booker-kirsten-gillibrand-893184

[NurseJackie]

1. Cory Booker (D) leads the way. Very glad that Bernie...

... follows Booker's lead.

👍

[mcar]

2. Thanks Senator Booker

and Senator Sanders for signing on Bookers bill.