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New Jersey Senator Cory Booker has introduced a bill (alt) that has been described by Marijuana Majority as the most far-reaching marijuana bill ever filed in either chamber of Congress. It would legalize cannabis federally by removing "marihuana" and tetrahydrocannabinols from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act. But it would go much further by withholding money from states with racially or financially disparate arrest and incarceration rates for cannabis-related crimes (effectively all states where cannabis is illegal):
The bill would legalize marijuana at the federal level and withhold federal money for building jails and prisons, along with other funds, from states whose cannabis laws are shown to disproportionately incarcerate minorities.
Under the legislation, federal convictions for marijuana use and possession would be expunged and prisoners serving time for a marijuana offense would be entitled to a sentencing hearing.
Those "aggrieved" by a disproportionate arrest or imprisonment rate would be able to sue, according to the bill. And a Community Reinvestment Fund would be established to "reinvest in communities most affected by the war on drugs" for everything from re-entry programs to public libraries.
Booker says that he will work towards bipartisan support for the bill.
Serious legalization attempt or just advertising for a 2020 U.S. Presidential Campaign?
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 03 2017, @01:58PM (2 children)
" Therefore, if you support the continued ban, this is exactly the reasoning you're standing for."
Sorry, but no.
Gubbermint has had the past 80 years, plus, to brainwash people. Maybe some people are still fearful that their daughter might grow up to want a black man. Maybe. But, there ARE other reasons to oppose the legalization of MJ. The bit of brainwashing that had the most effect on me, personally, was that MJ was a "gateway drug". Literature when I was growing up established as "fact" that people who tried MJ were about 20 zillion times more likely to go on to "hard drugs" as those who never tried cannabis. And, again, personally, I believed that shit.
As for the original versions of anti-MJ propaganda, I always thought it was corny and stupid, even as a little kid. Well, at least from about age 10. I watched the stupid video, and I thought it was a comedy, FFS.
I would suggest that you ASK PEOPLE who are opposed to legalization WHY they are opposed. And, I suggest that you take their word, and don't try to read RACISM into every reason you hear.
All of that said - I voted for the legalization of MJ in Arkansas in the last election. Not because I really "want" to see MJ on the store shelves, but because I'm simply sick of government waging war on my neighbors. Stupid fuckers want to spend their money getting high - that's their business. No need to kick their doors down, kill their dogs, put the kids in the hospital with serious concussions, and jail the parents for decades.
(Score: 2) by Grishnakh on Thursday August 03 2017, @02:28PM (1 child)
I would suggest that you ASK PEOPLE who are opposed to legalization WHY they are opposed. And, I suggest that you take their word,
That would be pretty difficult, because I literally don't know anyone who's opposed to it these days. Yes, a lot of people believed the "gateway drug" BS decades ago, but these days I don't think there's much support for that. I don't know Jeff Sessions personally, so I can't talk to him, and he's really the only person I know of who's still opposed to legalization, though I can gather from the public things he's said is that he ties it to a big surge in violent crime (though this surge is completely fictional), but I can't follow your advice and take him at his word because politicians are infamous for lying and spouting such BS when their real motivation is something else (like supporting industries that bribe them, such as the private prison industry that Sessions likes so much).
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 03 2017, @02:48PM
Well, I did say "ask people", as opposed to "ask the subhuman lizard people in Washington".