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.”
Anything to create a controversy while Republicans are in the majority.
He has some seriously wrong thinking there.
Magoo is seething.
Schroomer?
Who could have seen this coming?
The problem is more and more people have tried it and are now aware that it is NOT the dangerous addictive evil gateway drug the govt said it is.
Another dummocrap effort to destroy any intellectual discernment capacity in voters. Drug ‘em, then they’ll swallow dummocrap nonsense without any resistance.
Ok by me. Reefer Madness is idiotic.
Stopped clock, blind squirrel.
Makes sense; only a dope would vote for a democrat.
How so? Where in the Constitution is the federal government granted authority over the intrastate growing, selling, or using of marijuana?
Stoner virtue signaling.
Smoke signaling.
Pothead Nation.
The democrats are really evil and will turn us into a cesspool.
Like the relegalization of alcohol that ended Prohibition?
Feds go legal it’s over
I doubt they will
I agree with him.
There is no reason for a person who smokes weed to face legal jeopardy.
There is just no reason for that.
Has legal alcohol made us a boozer nation? If not, why would legal pot make us a pothead nation?
It's not (but you knew that); I hope the GOP proposes an amendment to strip this provision.
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