(WSVN) – Marijuana has now been legalized either for medicinal or recreational use in 29 states. Now one U.S. senator wants that to expand across the country.
Senator Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, introduced the “Marijuana Justice Act” on Facebook Live, which aims to legalize marijuana at the federal level.
Booker said the bill would allow people in prison for marijuana-related crimes to be re-sentenced, and would automatically expunge federal marijuana use and possession crimes.
“For decades, the failed War on Drugs has locked up millions of nonviolent drug offenders — especially for marijuana-related offenses — at an incredible cost of lost human potential, torn apart families and communities, and taxpayer dollars,” Booker said in the Facebook post. “The effects of the drug war have had a disproportionately devastating impact on Americans of color and the poor.”
The bill, he said, was “the right thing to do for public safety, and will help reduce our overflowing prison population.”
Booker’s bill is at odds with the Trump administration’s renewed focus on drugs, and follows a similar bill introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders back in 2015 that was never passed.
The latest piece of legislation, which would remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act, has little chance of passage in the Republican-controlled Congress.
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