Sen. Bernie Sanders announced his marijuana legalization plan on Thursday, taking aim at the “destructive war on drugs” and large cannabis corporations.
Marijuana legalization has long been part of Sanders’ policy platform. He introduced the first standalone marijuana legalization bill to the Senate in 2015 and also was the first major presidential candidate to call for marijuana legalization in 2016. His plan proposes criminal justice reform measures such as expunging past cannabis convictions and proposals to give people with convictions financial help to launch cannabis businesses.
“[The war on drugs] has disproportionately targeted people of color and ruined the lives of millions of Americans,” Sanders said in a statement. “When we’re in the White House, we’re going to end the greed and corruption of the big corporations and make sure that Americans hit hardest by the war on drugs will be the first to benefit from legalization.”
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How does he plan to legalize marijuana?
Sanders‘ proposes to deschedule marijuana, which would completely remove it from its classification under the Controlled Substances Act as highly dangerous and without any medicinal value.
Marijuana is now classified in the most restrictive category under federal drug laws — Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act — along with heroin and LSD.
Sanders would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act through the attorney general by an executive order within the first 100 days of his presidency. He would also nominate agency leaders for the Justice Department and Health and Human Services who would work toward this goal.
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