Chuck Schumer reveals plans to win votes for the new federal legalization law

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Convincing the majority of lawmakers to sign up to full legalization of cannabis at the federal level definitely seems like an uphill battle, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has a plan to make it happen.

Two weeks ago, Schumer and his co-sponsors Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) presented the first draft of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act. This pioneering piece of legislation would suspend cannabis at the federal level, abolish many weed-related federal penalties and restrictions, and allow ex-offenders to clear their criminal records.

For the bill to be passed, Schumer and his colleagues have to get 60 votes in the Senate. This would require strong bipartisan support as there are currently only 50 Democrats serving in the higher chamber of Congress. And while some GOP senators support legalization, there are also some Democrats who disagree with the law.

In a recent interview with ABC’s The View, Schumer outlined his strategy for gathering the necessary votes. Instead of putting the bill directly in Congress, the legislature released the full details of their first bill for further comment. After gathering comments on the bill from other senators and the public, the sponsors will revise the bill into something that could actually be passed.

“We now go to our colleagues and say: ‘Would you sign the bill? And if you don’t like what’s on the bill and you want some changes, tell us, ”Schumer told ABC, Marijuana Moment Reports. “I want to do this. And I think we’ll make it because it’s so, so overwhelmingly supported by the Americans. “

“It’s been so over-criminalized at the federal level – it’s treated like heroin or cocaine, much more serious drugs,” the senator said. “Worse, we have a person with a small amount of marijuana – a young person – in their pocket [they] can be arrested, with a criminal record as bad as selling a lot of heroin [and] they can almost never recover. “

“First, we want to legalize it to make sure that the people who want to use it can use it without this over-criminalization,” Schumer concluded. Second, we want to erase records of people who had a small amount of marijuana in their pockets and were injured for the rest of their lives. We would be happy if they were productive citizens. “

At the end of Schumer’s remarks, longtime cannabis advocate and host of The View Whoopi Goldberg could be heard shouting a “yes” behind the camera in support. “That was a whoopi ‘yes’,” suggested Schumer, and the show’s co-host confirmed that “that was whoopi as expected”.

Bill sponsors are seeking feedback on the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act by September 30th. Schumer also called on voters to reach out to their representatives in Congress and urge them to support this historic bill.