Senate Committee Holds Cannabis Decriminalization Bill Hearing

Less than a week after Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and two fellow Democrats introduced the bill, a Senate panel met Tuesday to consider a bill to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level. The bill, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, was introduced on July 21 by Senior Senator Schumer from New York, Senate Treasurer Ron Wyden, of Oregon, and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, chaired by Booker, discussed the legislation and heard testimony at a hearing held Tuesday at the nation’s Capitol. Under the nearly 300 pages of legislation, marijuana would be exempt from regulation under the federal Controlled Substances Act, where the drug is listed under the most restrictive Schedule I, and states could create their own cannabis policies. The measure would also introduce a national tax on cannabis products, erase records of past federal cannabis convictions, and allow cannabis prisoners of conscience to seek re-sentencing.

Booker, chair of the subcommittee and the only black senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the national cannabis ban had “failed miserably” and resulted in a “rotting injustice” in enforcement policies that disproportionately targeted black and brown communities. According to a 2020 report by the American Civil Liberties Union, blacks in America are nearly four times more likely than whites to be arrested for a cannabis-related crime, despite relatively equal cannabis use rates.

“Cannabis laws are unevenly enforced and destroy the lives of the most vulnerable,” Booker said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Witnesses say they support the cannabis decriminalization bill

Weldon Angelos, a former federal cannabis prisoner and advocate of criminal justice reform, appeared before the subcommittee to testify on behalf of the legislation. Angelos was sentenced to 55 years in prison on a first-time conviction for cannabis and firearms possession and spent 13 years behind bars before being released in 2016. He told senators at the hearing that the deletion was a key element of cannabis policy reform.

“Each arrest, prosecution, conviction and conviction makes the world a little smaller for those who bear the modern scarlet letter,” Angelos said, referring to the lives of people convicted of drug-related offences.

Law enforcement officials also testified in favor of legislation to reform the country’s marijuana laws. Edward Jackson, chief of the Annapolis Police Department, told the subcommittee that cannabis had “nothing inherently violent.”

Jackson said decriminalization would allow police officers to focus on more serious crimes and would help restore community confidence in law enforcement.

“I’ve spent far too much time arresting people for selling and possessing cannabis,” Jackson testified.

Senator Tom Cotton, a Missouri Republican, objected to the cannabis legalization and deletion bill, arguing that the legislation would “wipe the criminal records of illegal foreign traffickers.”

“When these criminals were dealing marijuana, they broke the law,” Cotton told his peers on the subcommittee. “Regardless of whether some find this law unfashionable or even unfair, what they did was illegal.”

The cannabis industry reacts to the Senate hearing

Mason Tvert, a partner at VS Strategies, a cannabis policy consultancy, told the High Times after Tuesday’s hearing that it was “refreshing to finally see a meaningful discussion of cannabis policy in the upper chamber of Congress.”

“History has shown that the more people talk about and hear about cannabis, the faster support for lifting the ban grows,” Tvert wrote in an email. “Hopefully more will follow, and members will have the opportunity to continue learning about the many important aspects of this important political issue, from extinction and justice to the economic and public safety benefits of legalization.”

Ryan G. Smith, co-founder and CEO of online cannabis wholesale platform LeafLink, has called on lawmakers to approve major cannabis policy reform at the national level.

“For far too long, unjust cannabis laws have disproportionately harmed communities of color,” Smith wrote in an email to High Times. “Today’s hearing was a step forward, but now is the time for Congress to take real action to end prohibition and support communities that have been unjustly attacked and left behind.”

But George Mancheril, co-founder and CEO of cannabis industry lender Bespoke Financial, is not optimistic that significant cannabis policy reform measures will be passed in the near future, noting that less controversial legislation such as the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act , which would allow banks to provide financial services to legal cannabis companies did not fare well in the upper chamber of Congress.

“This hearing was an important step toward federal cannabis legalization, but highlighted the long road we still have to go. Passing sweeping legislation is significantly more difficult than limited-scope proposals like the SAFE Banking Act, which has stalled multiple times in the Senate,” Mancheril said in an email. “The current political and economic environment will likely continue to keep all of these cannabis-focused bills on the fringes of political discussion and are unlikely to pass any time soon, but we hope future hearings will move the discussion towards the mechanisms and Federal regulatory timeline will drive greater clarity and transparency for the industry and all stakeholders.”