Sen. Cory Booker says he’s optimistic about federal marijuana decriminalization after signaling a possible compromise

Through Nina Zdinjak

Weeks after the Senate’s long-awaited marijuana decriminalization bill was introduced, it drew much criticism, largely for its complexity. Many industry experts, such as Cantor Fitzgerald’s Pablo Zuanic and Emily Paxhia, co-founder of one of the longest-running dedicated cannabis mutual funds, Poseidon Asset Management, agree that the chances of the bill passing the Senate are slim. The bill is called the Cannabis Administration And Opportunity Act (CAOA).

“It’s too much wrapped up in CAOA for this to get through, this was a Hail Mary bill put forward by Schumer and the supporting Democrats,” Paxhia recently told Benzinga.

Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Still, one of the bill’s leading supporters, Senator Cory Booker, remains optimistic that marijuana will be decriminalized at the federal level. “I’m actually getting excited,” Booker told Pix11 on Wednesday.

“We’ve got more and more state senators turning to the big bill and now more Republicans are stepping up trying to help us maybe find a compromise.”

The statement followed Booker after he revealed he was open to compromise and signaled the possibility of his chamber passing a marijuana-banking measure with certain social justice components before taking action against the CAOA.

“I’m open to compromises that achieve my goals of safety, investment opportunities that are equal to business communities, and ultimately ensuring that we do something right now for all of these people who owning marijuana are taking some relief from the effects.” who have it on their economic and family well-being,” Booker told NJ Spotlight News last week.

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Previously, Booker had opposed passing the SAFE Banking Act alone out of concern that it would not address restorative justice. So the news of his move towards a possible compromise came as a surprise to many. It could also signal a challenging fate for CAOA, despite Booker’s obvious enthusiasm.

In addition to his reform optimism, the senator emphasized the importance of pushing ahead with the legalization of cannabis at the federal level.

“You know, since I’ve been here, this marijuana ban has particularly hurt low-income minority communities,” Booker said. “That was more marijuana possession arrests in 2019 than all violent crime arrests combined. And so we waste so many resources. What we need to do is decriminalize this at the federal level.”

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and has been republished with permission.