Posted on 04/20/2018 9:12:02 AM PDT by NobleFree
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced legislation Friday that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and establish “dedicated funding streams” for women and minority businesses to grow and distribute the drug.
“The time has come to decriminalize marijuana,” Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a statement. “My thinking, as well as the general population’s views on the issue has evolved, and so I believe there’s no better time than the present to get this done. It’s simply the right thing to do.”
Schumer’s legislation would maintain laws that prevent trafficking of marijuana across state lines in cases where the drug is legal in one state but not in a neighboring state.
How Your Small Business Can Take Advantage of Instagram Watch Full Screen to Skip Ads It would also call for dedicated funding for “highway safety research,” to “assess the pitfalls of driving under the influence of THC,” and to develop impairment testing for drugged drivers.
The bill would also call for funding research into the health effects of using marijuana as well as whether it is effective for treating medical ailments.
Schumer’s endorsement of marijuana follows Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to bring up legislation that would legalize hemp, which is grown for industrial use and does not contain THC.
McConnell, R-Ky., plans a vote on the measure in the coming weeks.
Kentucky is one of the country’s top producers of hemp.
Also on Friday, D.C.’s nonvoting delegate, Democrat Eleanor Holmes Norton, said she will introduced a bill and file an amendment to the House fiscal year 2019 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development appropriations bill that would legalize use of medical marijuana in public housing, as long as medical marijuana is legal in the state. The bill would permit the use of medical marijuana in federally-assisted housing, including public housing and the Section 8 housing program.
Norton plans to speak at the third annual National Cannabis Festival in Washington on Saturday.
Norton pointed to polls showing 90 percent support for legalizing medical marijuana.
“Individuals living in federally funded public housing who are prescribed legal, medical marijuana should not fear eviction for simply treating their medical conditions,” Norton said. “Our legislation should attract bipartisan support because it also protects states’ rights.”
Sure, just as long as they also de-criminalize heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and allow ALL pharmaceuticals to be purchased over the counter WITHOUT a prescription.
Oh, and repeal all age restrictions, and ban company drug and alcohol testing too.
And don’t forget to eliminate the DEA, the FDA, and ban companies and entities from discriminating against anyone who consumes any drug.
That about cover it? It’s all or none. No wishy washy in between.
Is this guy high or what?
Hm. I live in CO and welcome the day that this stupid War on Drugs is relegated to the worst government intrusions on a free citizenry waste bin of history.
I don't accept any of those claims; where's the evidence?
You NAILED him there.
I thought democrats were against smoking...
I notice you promote marrijuana. Rabidly.
I’ll bet I’m not the only one who noticed that.
Perhaps we can abolish the “war on burglary, robbery and rape” next, since those things happen regardless of laws.
This should be a really hot thread on Friday 420.
Fine with me. And no, I’ve touched the stuff.
I've answered it several times, but here you are repeating it again anyways.
This isn’t about legalizing pot. If the dems supported legalization, they would have done it when Obama was the president and they controlled both houses of congress. It wan’t even seriously discussed.
The entire ploy about legalization is a con job the democrats are playing because they have run out of ideas and the polling numbers are bad. The youth thinks they aren’t left enough. The minority identity groups are now employed. Their economic plans have been proven failures. Gay marriage was forced on us so that is now a non-issue. There is nothing left for them other than the pot card. Whether or not a person supports legalization, we should be aware that the dems are manipulating the issue for votes on this one. They could care less about its actual legalization.
Nonsense - can conservatives pass a spending reduction ONLY if they cut spending to only those areas authorized by the Constitution?
Oh, and repeal all age restrictions, and ban company drug and alcohol testing too. [...] ban companies and entities from discriminating against anyone who consumes any drug.
Those are matters for the states.
And don’t forget to eliminate the DEA, the FDA
They should be restricted to purely interstate matters.
There is no such thing as "legalizing marijuana," only an INCREASE in its regulation, and all of the required bloated state bureaucracy that goes with it.
What was once a dozen or so pages of penal code to ban it completely becomes thousands of pages of inherent boundaries to manage the resultant fallout.
Noble Free and his fellow pot pushers think they are experts on the “Constitution.”
I notice you didn't answer the question. I'll bet I'm not the only one who noticed that.
I notice you promote marrijuana.
Your post is a cowardly evasion and a lie.
We go around preaching to others not to tell us how we should protect our families with firearms but the minute anything crosses our minds that we think others shouldn't have... well, we start preaching about what is good for society.
Personally, I think nothing has been worse - surely more destructive to the body - than alcohol. We finally realized that if adults want it... well, 'to thine own self' as long as you do not inflict yourself on society (drunk driving... violent acts under the influence, etc). There are drugs worse than alcohol. Let's focus on them and not continue to preach what 'we think' is good for society on something many states have already realized is innocuous.
Obvious nonsense - criminalizing across the board is self-evidently more restrictive than criminalizing under certain circumstances.
What was once a dozen or so pages of penal code to ban it completely becomes thousands of pages of inherent boundaries to manage the resultant fallout.
The intrusiveness of law is not well measured by the page; see above.
You’re pathetically naive if you think that gangs and illegal commerce in pot will just “go away” with its legalization.
Or so you now claim.
Great! Lets turn the whole nation into streets filled with lazy, stoned out teens and millennials begging for money for their weed habit. It’s working so well here in California and in Colorado.
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