Sen. Chuck Schumer Announces Bill To Decriminalize Marijuana

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that he is proposing a bill to decriminalize marijuana as a federal offense.

Schumer’s bill would reportedly take marijuana off the Drug Enforcement Administration’s list of controlled substances and would allow states to have the authority over how to regulate the drug.

“The legislation is long overdue based on, you know, a bunch of different facts,” Schumer said in an interview with Vice. “I’ve seen too many people’s lives ruined because they had small amounts of marijuana and served time in jail much too long.”

He then added, “If smoking marijuana doesn’t hurt anybody else, why shouldn’t we allow people to do it and not make it criminal.”

On Friday morning, Schumer highlighted his new stance on marijuana and what his new bill proposes on his Twitter.

Schumer believes that weed is not a drug that needs to be feared in the same way heroin and cocaine are. “If smoking marijuana doesn’t hurt anybody else, why shouldn’t we allow people to do it and not make it criminal,” he said.

Through his bill, the federal government will still have power to “regulate marijuana advertising in the same way it does alcohol and tobacco” so the industry cannot target children for advertisements and sales.

Schumer said that the legislation bill would be released within the next week.