These are the senators pushing Biden to legalize cannabis

Through Nina Zdinjak

Last week, a group of six US Senators urged the Biden administration to use its position to remove cannabis from the list of Schedule 1 substances under federal law. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Ron Wyden (D-ORE), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Edward J. Markey (D-MA) sent the letter on Wednesday, urging the administration “to use its existing authority to (i) defer cannabis and (ii) pardon all individuals convicted of nonviolent cannabis-related offences.”

U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MIN) and Tina Smith (D-Min), although not part of that group, signed and mailed the letter to President Biden, Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). Xavier Becerra said they also support legalizing recreational marijuana and commutation of sentences for nonviolent offenders, Minnesota Reformer reported.

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“I support the legalization of marijuana at the federal level and believe that states should have the right to determine the best way to handle marijuana within their borders. We must also take steps to overturn previous nonviolent convictions,” Klobuchar said.

Klobuchar previously ran for president in 2020, and before serving the Senate, she served two terms as Hennepin County Attorney, leading the state’s largest team of prosecutors.

Smith seems to be on the same page with all of these politicians fighting for the same cause – the legalization of the plant. Her spokeswoman, Lexi Byler, stated: “Sen. Smith believes marijuana should be legalized and cannabis removed from the national list of illegal controlled substances. She also supports overturning nonviolent marijuana convictions.

Letter highlights and current developments

In the letter the senators sent out last week, they wrote: “The government’s failure to coordinate a timely review of its cannabis policy harms thousands of Americans, slows research and deprives Americans of their ability to use marijuana for medicinal or other purposes use. We call on the Biden administration to act quickly to right this decades-long injustice that is hurting individuals, especially black and brown communities.”

The senators didn’t forget to mention growing public support for marijuana legalization, as well as the challenges facing communities of color due to the “racist and harmful legacy of cannabis policies” in the US

“The legacy of the drug war is omnipresent. It is estimated that over 40,000 people remain in prison for cannabis-related crimes,” they wrote. “A report released by the American Civil Liberties Union in 2020 found that black people were nearly four times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession, even with comparable rates of use among people of all races. In some states, black people were almost 10 times more likely to be arrested for cannabis possession.”

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The letter follows the Biden administration in confirming that it will consider safe locations of use and the decriminalization of cannabis to address the public health emergency. Still, this is far from the first time the Biden administration has made promises and failed to take any real action on marijuana reform, nor the first time the White House has come under pressure from all sides on the issue, which is why the Senators need to press harder. Will it work this time? We will see.

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