Sen. Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) declared this week that he plans to push marijuana reform legislation with or without President Joe Biden’s approval, Breitbart reports.
Schumer’s comments came during a recent interview that he did with Politico.
In that interview, Schumer revealed that he is getting ready to introduce a piece of legislation aimed at reforming marijuana laws.
Schumer refused to discuss the details of the legislation with Politico. All that we know is that he has teamed up here with Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ron Wyden (D-OR) and that he has indicated that he is in favor of legalizing the drug.
Background
President Biden has not been as for legalizing marijuana as Schumer and many of his fellow Democrats. He, instead, is in favor of decriminalizing it, not legalizing it, although he has not made clear what he means by this distinction.
Perhaps, Biden gave us some idea when he said that “no one should be going to jail for drug crime. Period. Nobody. Nobody. No matter what the crime. You should go to a mandatory rehabilitation. It costs less to put people in a drug rehabilitation program than it does in jail. And you have a chance. You’ve got to give people a chance!”
Schumer, for his part, has not always been in favor of legalizing marijuana either. But, he told Politico that he has changed his mind after seeing what has happened in states such as Oregon and Colorado, where the drug has been legalized.
“When a few of the early states — Oregon and Colorado — wanted to legalize, all the opponents talked about the parade of horribles: Crime would go up. Drug use would go up. Everything bad would happen,” Schumer said.
He continued, “the legalization of states worked out remarkably well. They were a great success. The parade of horribles never came about, and people got more freedom. And people in those states seem very happy.”
“We’re going to move forward, period.”
Schumer expressed hope, during the interview, that he would be able to change Biden’s mind on the subject.
“I want to make my arguments to him, as many other advocates will,” Schumer said.
The Senate Majority Leader added, however, that “at some point, we’re going to move forward, period.”
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