Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) says it\u2019s been \u201cfrustrating\u201d to see marijuana legalization fall short of equity goals, which he said is partly due to ongoing federal prohibition. And while he\u2019s pushing for reform, he characterized cannabis as a \u201cdangerous\u201d drug that hasn\u2019t been studied enough.<\/p>\n
The senator, who has long advocated for equity-centered federal legalization and sponsored a bill to that end with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) last year, discussed the prospects of drug policy reform at a panel at Tisch College on Monday.<\/p>\n
Asked about which of his priorities could be achieved in the current Congress, Booker said that he believes that bipartisan lawmakers will be able to pass legislation to eliminate the sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine, and that marijuana \u201ccompromise legislation\u201d is also something that \u201cmight happen\u201d based on conversations with certain Republican colleagues.<\/p>\n
However, while cannabis legalization is \u201csomething profoundly important to me,\u201d Booker said<\/a> that \u201cwhat is really frustrating me is I thought that legalizing marijuana would have a democratizing force on our country, and it has not.\u201d<\/p>\n\n He said he\u2019s dissatisfied with the progress of expungements for people with prior cannabis convictions living in states where the plant is now legal, and also decried that the industry lacks critical diversity.<\/p>\n \u201cEven the business side of this is not as fair and equal in terms of opportunity as you would think,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd some of that is because we have failed to deschedule it\u2014and so if you\u2019re a woman who gets a [cannabis] license, you can\u2019t get the capital necessary often to hold on to that license to start a business or to fund the business.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo you have these multi-state operators funded by large hedge funds or large wealthy individuals who are not diverse, who are going around buying up licenses from desperate people in communities\u2014where they thought they were going to help make sure that the very people who are disproportionately impacted by marijuana prohibition were now going to get an opportunity to help on the business side, but that has not happened,\u201d the senator said.<\/p>\n \u201cMarijuana business in the United States of America is overwhelmingly non-diverse, white male,\u201d he said. \u201cWomen and minorities make up a tiny, tiny fraction\u2014not in any way proportionate to the numbers in America, and so this is an issue I\u2019ve been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n Booker made similar points about his concerns with the equity shortcomings<\/a> of cannabis reform last year as he and colleagues worked to advance a package of modest marijuana proposals including bipartisan banking and expungements legislation that ultimately did not come to pass.<\/p>\n But during his discussion on Monday, he also asserted that marijuana is \u201cdangerous drug\u201d that\u2019s been understudied.<\/p>\n He said he shared the same concerns as an audience member who spoke about the risks of high-potency THC products. While Booker said that the status quo is untenable and will only lead to more discriminatory criminalization, \u201ct<\/span>he question is what\u2019s the right way to move forward?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n \u201cThis is a drug, and I think it\u2019s a dangerous drug. I really do,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we haven\u2019t studied it enough. I think what\u2019s happening to the brain\u2014I will tell you this, I think alcohol is a pretty damn dangerous drug as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you have a child, or if you are younger than 25, and you\u2019re drinking or smoking pot, you are damaging your brain in ways that will severely affect your mental health, the wellbeing of your brain,\u201d he said. \u201cThe studies and the data now\u2014when you get to be like my age, and what you\u2019ve done to yourself if you\u2019ve lived that way of regularly smoking drugs and smoking marijuana, I just think, why? Why would you do it?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut I will tell you this: I would rather a system that strictly regulates [and] enforces. There\u2019s a lot more that I see being done in some jurisdictions to protect kids, especially from accessing this serious drug,\u201d the senator said. \u201cI would want a lot more research being done on alcohol and drugs and other things that we seem to have in our society that cause a lot more damage than we\u2019re talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n Booker, Schumer and other colleagues have held early meetings<\/a> with bipartisan senators<\/a> this session after failing to advance a so-called SAFE Plus package of cannabis legislation last year. The reform is now further complicated by the fact that Republicans hold control of the House.<\/p>\n The majority leader and other lawmakers are also scheduled to speak at an advocacy event inside the Capitol Building<\/a> on the cannabis holiday 4\/20 next week.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Booker recently filed a bill alongside Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) that\u2019s meant to streamline the federal rescheduling<\/a> of \u201cbreakthrough therapies\u201d like psilocybin and MDMA in order to promote research and drug development.<\/p>\n Where Presidential Candidate Donald Trump Stands On Marijuana<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n The post Cory Booker Calls Marijuana A \u2018Dangerous Drug\u2019 And Says He\u2019s Frustrated With \u2018Non-Diverse\u2019 Industry<\/a> appeared first on Marijuana Moment<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) says it\u2019s been \u201cfrustrating\u201d to see marijuana legalization fall short of equity goals, which he said is partly due to ongoing federal prohibition. And while he\u2019s pushing for reform, he characterized cannabis as a \u201cdangerous\u201d drug that hasn\u2019t been studied enough. The senator, who has longContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":458,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,81,126],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/458"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63840,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63839\/revisions\/63840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Cory Booker Calls Marijuana A \u2018Dangerous Drug\u2019 And Says He\u2019s Frustrated With \u2018Non-Diverse\u2019 Industry<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"