Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and a coalition of other Democratic senators have officially reintroduced a bill to federally legalize marijuana.
One day after the Justice Department announced that it is moving to reschedule cannabis in a historic policy shift, the senators held a press conference on Wednesday to unveil the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA).
The senators’ move to file the broad legalization measure also comes as industry advocates continue to push to enact narrower legislation focused on cannabis business’s access to banking services.
“It’s past time for the federal government to catch up to the attitudes of the American people when it comes to cannabis,” Schumer said in a press release on Wednesday. “That’s why we’re reintroducing the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, legislation that would finally end the federal prohibition on cannabis while prioritizing safety, research, workers’ rights and restorative justice.”
“We have more work to do to address decades of over-criminalization, particularly in communities of color, but today’s reintroduction shows the movement is growing, and I will keep working until we achieve meaningful change,” he said.
At the start of the press
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