it's election season in America, so for the next months we'll be hearing political ads and debates, and reading columns concerning which political candidates give U.S. the best chance to thrive. What's extremely interesting about 2020 elections is that, for the first time ever, there's likely to be a real focus and debate on Cannabis Reform !
Mr. Sanders has suggested that an Executive Order to legalize #Marijuana is on the table. That means such a scenario may work, if Mr. Sanders becomes the Democratic nomination, and wins the election.
There's no doubt that #Cannabis reform has more potential to take place now in the U.S. than at any point over the past couple of decades. But there are no certainties, at the moment, that Mr. Sanders will win the Democratic Presidential nomination or the 2020 Presidency. He said:
What I call for now is the legalization of marijuana in America. I believe we can do that through executive order, and I will do that.
Mr. Sanders echoed the legalization and descheduling arguments he has been making for years, arguments that have earned him an A+ rating from advocacy group NORML.
Mr. Sanders / The Longtime Cannabis Champion
Mr. Sanders smoked marijuana decades ago, he said during a campaign rally in Michigan, that he has tried marijuana twice in his life when he was very young. He adds that the drug made him cough a lot.
I smoked marijuana twice and all I did was cough my guts out, so it didn’t work for me.But I do understand other people have had different experiences.
It is not important, if he have been high or not when he said that, the most important things that:
He cosponsored ( More than 20 years ago ) a House bill to legalize and regulate medical marijuana.
He also signed onto legislation that would reschedule cannabis and protect states with legal medical cannabis.
He has been behind some of the first and most wide-ranging legislative efforts to fundamentally change federal cannabis laws.
He began supporting efforts to reform federal hemp laws, when he arrived in the Senate, He cosponsored three versions of a bill introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to remove hemp from the definition of marijuana under the CSA.
He voted against a resolution in 1998 that was meant to express "The sense of Congress that marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug and should not be legalized for medicinal use."
He was the first major presidential candidate to endorse marijuana legalization during his last bid and, in 2015, filed the first-ever Senate bill to end federal cannabis prohibition.
He reiterated that the government "Needs to end the destructive war on drugs."
He’s attached his name to a number of reform bills in Congress, going back to his time in the House, as well as during his Senate tenure, that includes recent pieces of legislation such as the Marijuana Justice Act, which would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and punish states with discriminatory enforcement, as well as the the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act, which would federally deschedule cannabis.
He backed bills to shield banks from federal prosecution if they choose to accept marijuana business accounts in legal states.
He voted in favor of amendments, on four occasions in the House, to protect legal medical marijuana states from federal intervention.
He has criticized moves from the Justice Department under President Donald Trump to dismantle guidelines on federal marijuana enforcement priorities. He said:
Marijuana is not the same as heroin. No one who has seriously studied the issue believes that. Quite the contrary. We should allow states the right to move toward the decriminalization of marijuana, not reverse the progress that has been made.
Mr. Sanders & Marijuana Reform
Mr. Sanders has been outspoken about his support for marijuana reform in speeches, during debates and highlighted the following:
- Marijuana is not comparable to other drugs listed in Schedule I of the CSA, and it should be removed from that list, accordingly. He said:
No rational person really believes marijuana should be a Schedule 1 drug next to killer drugs like heroin. Keeping marijuana in the same category as heroin is absurd. The time is long overdue for us to remove the federal prohibition on marijuana.
- Black Americans have been disproportionately impacted by the drug war and are more likely to be arrested for marijuana despite the fact that usage rates are roughly the same among different racial groups. He said:
Blacks are four times more likely than whites to get arrested for marijuana possession, even though the same proportion of blacks and whites use marijuana.
- Thousands and thousands of people across the country have had their lives destroyed because they have criminal records as a result of marijuana use. He said:
It is time to decriminalize marijuana and end the failed war on drugs.
- It is an injustice that young people can have their lives upended by a non-violent cannabis conviction while Wall Street bankers avoid prosecution for financial crimes. He said:
I find it strange that the kid who smokes marijuana gets arrested but the crooks on Wall Street get off scot free.
References & Photos / Shepherdexpress / Newsweek / Forbes / Cbsnews /