Huge Milestone: This State Announced Plans To Decriminalize Marijuana Use At A Federal Level

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York has announced his plans to end the criminalization of marijuana at the federal level by using his weight as the majority leader behind the growing movement to make marijuana use recreational.

The new piece of legislation called the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substance Act and begin regulating it with new federal rules and guidelines. This would expand the burgeoning industry after many years of uncertainty.

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.

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.