Marijuana Would Be Decriminalized Under New Schumer Bill

NEW YORK, NY — The recent push to legalize marijuana now has support from the nation's top Democratic lawmaker. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer on Friday said he plans to introduce a bill that would decriminalize pot at the federal level by removing it from a list of controlled substances.

The bill — proposed on an international cannabis holiday — would also protect states' rights to legalize the drug and fund federal research into the effects of marijuana.

"My thinking – as well as the general population’s views – on the issue has evolved, and so I believe there’s no better time than the present to get this done," Schumer, the Democratic minority leader, said in a statement. "It’s simply the right thing to do. "

Marijuana is currently considered a "Schedule I" drug under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, a category reserved for drugs that are easy to abuse and serve no medical purpose. Drugs like heroin and ecstasy are in the same category, while cocaine and fentanyl are in Schedule II, meaning they're considered less dangerous.

Schumer's bill would remove pot from the federal scheduling system entirely, making it easier for states to decide how to regulate the drug.

The legislation would maintain federal authority to stop trafficking of marijuana from states where it's legal into states where it's outlawed, Schumer's office said. The federal government could also regulate marijuana advertising to make sure it doesn't target children, similar to existing rules for alcohol and tobacco, the senator's office said.

Schumer's bill would also offer federal funding to minority- and women-owned marijuana businesses and public health research into marijuana's medical uses and the effects of THC, the main psychoactive chemical in pot, on the brain.

Schumer cited the disparate racial impacts of federal drug laws as a basis for changing his position on marijuana. Marijuana is the reason for more than half of all drug arrests in the U.S., and 80 percent of people in federal prison for drug offenses are black or Latino, Schumer said.

Schumer's legislation is similar to a bill New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) endorsed in February. New Jersey Sen. Corey Booker's proposal would also remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances and expunge federal marijuana possession convictions from people's criminal records.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is planning a statewide study of the potential impacts of marijuana legalization. Cynthia Nixon, Cuomo's Democratic primary challenger, supports legalizing the drug.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said he respects Schumer's bill because it would protect states' rights. The mayor still opposes legalizing marijuana out of concern about corporate interests creating a too-powerful industry, but he said he'll re-evaluate his position based on how legalization has played out elsewhere.

"I want to work it through quickly — certainly want to look at what's happened in the other states and cities," de Blasio said Friday on WNYC's "The Brian Lehrer Show." "That's very important because as a steward of this city I need to know what happened in Denver because of Colorado's law, what happened in Seattle, cities that we can to some extent compare ourselves with."

(Lead image: U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer speaks at the U.S. Capitol in April 2018. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)