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The Daily Signal
Feel the Bern?
Sanders Offers Bill to End US Prohibitions on Marijuana
Natalie Johnson
November 05, 2015
The measure from Sen. Bernie Sanders would remove marijuana from the
federal list of controlled dangerous substances. (Photo: Mary
Schwalm/Reuters/Newscom)
Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., introduced a bill Wednesday to lift
federal prohibitions on marijuana and throw the decision on legalizing
the drug squarely into the hands of the states.
Sanders’ plan would strike marijuana from the Drug Enforcement
Administration’s list of the “most dangerous” substances, which
currently classifies weed alongside drugs such as heroin, ecstasy, and
LSD.
The legislation also would remove marijuana from the Controlled
Substances Act, the U.S. government’s central drug control law, giving
states the authority to legalize and regulate marijuana without federal
interference–in the same way states govern alcohol and tobacco sales.
“Too many Americans have seen their lives destroyed because they have
criminal records as a result of marijuana use,” Sanders, who calls
himself a democratic socialist, said at George Mason University last
week. “That’s wrong. That has got to change.”
Sanders underscored the fact that 2.2 million people are imprisoned for
various offenses across the nation, which he said costs taxpayers
roughly $80 billion a year. Changes to drug laws could help alleviate
the situation, he said.
“The time is long overdue for us to take marijuana off the federal
government’s list of outlawed drugs,” he said.
Marijuana advocacy groups hailed the bill, the first in the Senate
aiming to end the federal prohibition, as a positive step.
“The science is clear that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, and
that should be reflected in our nation’s marijuana policy,” Mason
Tvert, director of communications at the Marijuana Policy Project, told
Huffington Post. “Senator Sanders is simply proposing that we treat
marijuana similarly to how we treat alcohol at the federal level,
leaving most of the details to the states. It is a commonsense proposal
that is long overdue in the Senate.”
But Cully Stimson, manager of The Heritage Foundation’s national
security law program, disputed that the drug is as safe as advocates
claim.
“Sound science should drive the issue of whether marijuana should be
delisted as a Schedule I controlled substance, and sound science is
clear: Marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug,” Stimson told The
Daily Signal.
Stimson said the American Medical Association and the American Lung
Association, along with countless medical and mental health experts,
oppose removing the drug from the DEA’s “most dangerous” Schedule I
category because a series of studies concluded marijuana is harmful and
addictive.
Chuck Rosenberg, acting administrator of the DEA, said Wednesday
that smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes is “a joke.”
“What really bothers me is the notion that marijuana is also
medicinal—because it’s not,” Rosenberg told reporters. “We can have an
intellectually honest debate about whether we should legalize something
that is bad and dangerous, but don’t call it medicine—that is a joke.”
Although pot remains illegal on the federal level, 23 states and
Washington, D.C., have legalized some forms of marijuana use. Another
17 states are moving to advance ballot initiatives on legalization in
2016.
Read this and other articles with links at The Daily Signal
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