The Senate's new Democratic leadership announced it had begun work toward nationwide cannabis legalization.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said he was working with senators Cory Booker and Ron Wyden on a new plan to end federal prohibition.
Many reform proposals had reached Congress in previous years but had little chance of a Senate hearing under former Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). With Democrats now leading, reform returned to the agenda.
Schumer promised cannabis reform would be a leading priority that year, and the announcement indicated his intention to follow through.
The troubling history of prohibition
We previously explained why cannabis was banned in this article. Shared financial interests and policies targeting immigrants played major roles.
The senators said the war on drugs had become a war on people, particularly people of color. Ending federal prohibition was necessary to address its failures and decades of harm to Black communities nationwide. Reform would both address a painful historical chapter and remove discriminatory policies' destructive consequences. They committed to advancing legislation together and making it a Senate priority.
Each senator had prepared a separate reform bill. Booker introduced the Cannabis Justice Act in 2017; Schumer announced the Cannabis Freedom and Opportunity Act the previous year; Wyden also prepared a legalization bill. They planned to set individual proposals aside and create comprehensive legislation incorporating each one's best features.
