Marijuana Justice Act: Legalize Weed in the Whole Country

There is a new bill that could potentially pass for the legalization of marijuana for the entirety of the United States. Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey has introduced a bill that would get rid of the federal ban on marijuana and encourage states to legalize it.

The bill was announced on Facebook Live, with the Senator listing everything that has gone wrong with the way the government has handled the cannabis culture. Families have been torn apart, innocent people have been jailed, and tax payer dollars have been wasted. The senator feels that legalizing marijuana would fix all of these issues and have a positive impact on the country as a whole. Senator Cory Booker is introducing the Marijuana Justice Act. Under this act, marijuana will no longer be a Schedule I substance and will be considered the same as alcohol or tobacco.

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The Marijuana Justice Act would also wipe out federal convictions for marijuana use and possession from criminal records and allow people who are currently serving jail time for cannabis to petition for resentencing. “This is the right thing to do for public safety, and will help reduce our overflowing prison population,” Booker said.

In the release of this information, we know the bill in question seeks to do the things listed below:

• Cut federal funding for state law enforcement and prison construction if a state disproportionately arrests and/or incarcerates low-income individuals and/or people of color for marijuana offenses
•  Allow entities to sue states that disproportionately arrest and/or incarcerate low-income individuals and/or people of color for marijuana offenses
• Prevent deportations of individuals for marijuana offenses
• Provide for a process of expungement for marijuana offenses at the federal level
• Provide for a process of resentencing for marijuana offenses at the federal level
• Create a “Community Reinvestment Fund” of $500 million to invest in communities most impacted by the war against cannabis, for programs such as job training, reentry, community centers, and more. Part of the funding will come from the aforementioned cuts to state law enforcement and prison construction.
• “The question is no longer ‘should we legalize marijuana?’; it is ‘how do we legalize marijuana?’ We must do so in a way that recognizes that the people who suffered most under prohibition are the same people who should benefit most from legalization,” said Queen Adesuyi, policy associate for the DPA.

Booker has a great challenge with this bill ahead of him. Many people, even in the Facebook comments of his live video, are heavily against the idea. That doesn’t mean that it will fail though. A Gallup poll published in October 2016 found that 60 percent of Americans are in favor of legalizing marijuana. It's going to be a toss up to know what will happen with this bill. This is a great move for the people in the cannabis community no matter what happens. This bill shows the government that big time leaders are serious about the legalization of marijuana, which means it might take some time but it will happen sooner rather than later.