Time To Decriminalize and Legalize Cannabis at the Federal Level
Democrats, the party of ideas and progress (usually) are stalling on their promise to decriminalize /legalize cannabis at the federal level. Two senators, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (NH) and Sen. Jon Tester (MT) are the holdouts in the senate.
These stuck in the mud democrats of the ole "Refer Madness" and "Devil's Weed" mentality who pitch the old and debunked "mamajuana is a gateway drug" bullshit will be the responsible parties for keeping US law on cannabis back in the dark ages of Anslinger and cannabis demonization and criminalization.
The truth is cannabis has been used successfully to get people off the sauce and harder drugs. Willful ignorance in US lawmakers, especially among democrats and independents is something hard to understand in this day and age.
The future of cannabis decriminalization and full legalization at the federal level will likely be left for the less judgmental and more forward thinking open minded younger generations. In the meantime cannabis enthusiasts and advocates will just have to keep pushing back and pushing back hard on the ingrained willful ignorance of the stuck in the mud crowd.
On to the article...
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's biggest challenge to legalizing marijuana is his fellow Democrats.
The New York Democrat has repeatedly promised a vote on cannabis reform, promising to tee it up even if President Joe Biden does not get on board. But that goal, which Schumer underlined with a public celebration Tuesday of an unofficial but widely marked marijuana holiday, means little if the majority leader can't corral the votes for passage in his own caucus. And two Democrats told POLITICO that they oppose removing federal penalties on marijuana.
“I don't support legalizing marijuana,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said in an interview. “We're in the middle of an opioid epidemic, and the research that I've seen suggests that that is a way that more people get into drugs.”
Sen. Jon Tester of Montana was similarly unenthusiastic about ending federal marijuana penalties. Legalization would “cause more problems than it solves,” Tester said.
Schumer can't afford to lose a single vote on his side of the aisle in his legalization push, and that's before an even tougher battle to win over Republicans who have little interest in working with Democrats. If Schumer can't find a path to Senate passage this year, with a midterm election that's historically not been kind to the president's party, it could mean a long delay before pot is legal in the U.S. — even as 18 states have embraced full legalization.
As he seeks reelection in a state that recently legalized recreational marijuana, Schumer is working hard on the issue. He's developing legislation with Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) that most cannabis policy watchers speculate will build on a far-reaching marijuana legalization bill passed by the House on mostly party lines last year.
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