周四，参议院民主党人公布了他们期待已久的大麻合法化提案，宣布将全面立法，解除联邦对该药物的禁令，并将决定如何监管的权力交给各州。
大麻管理和机会法案，由多数党领袖查克舒默，纽约州，财政委员会主席罗恩·怀登，俄勒冈州倡导。和新泽西州民主党参议员科里·布克希望在联邦层面上使大麻合法化，同时建立FDA的监控要求，就像已经存在的对烟草和酒精的监控要求一样。
舒默在周四的发言中说:“大麻合法化在州一级已经证明非常成功，所以现在是国会赶上全国其他地区的时候了。”“我很自豪成为第一个说是时候结束联邦禁止大麻的多数党领袖，这项法案为更新我们的大麻法律和扭转几十年来毒品战争造成的伤害提供了最佳框架。”
舒默没有宣布立法的下一步措施，也没有宣布他是否会试图在参议院进行进一步审议，尽管他说他希望“今年”在大麻问题上有所作为。
选民对合法化的支持正在增长。根据538年4月报告在美国，所有50个州的大多数注册选民现在都支持大麻合法化。18个州，加上华盛顿特区，已经使21岁以上的人娱乐性使用大麻合法化。
怀登在一份声明中说:“我会要求我在参议院的同事们认真思考让联邦政府停留在过去对公共健康和安全意味着什么。”“由于未能采取行动，联邦政府正在授权非法大麻市场，它正在摧毁生命，并支持我们刑事司法系统中根深蒂固的种族主义，它正在阻碍小型大麻企业的发展，并在他们的社区创造就业机会。大麻合法化已经到来，国会需要跟上这一进程。”
但是国会可能还没有为联邦改革做好准备。如果舒默真的试图推进立法，它将在参议院面临一场艰苦的战斗。至少需要10名共和党人支持该措施才能通过，也不是所有民主党人都一定会支持。
尽管如此，立法的支持者说，简单地引入该法案是朝着正确方向迈出的一步。
“我对这一天感到非常兴奋，但它现在也给了我们完成一些事情的动力，”布克说，并指出法案发起人正在寻找推动立法的最佳途径。
“我想强调，这是立法过程的开始，而不是结束。我们将努力为我们的法案争取支持，我希望未来我们能在大麻改革方面取得更多进展，”舒默说。
去年夏天，舒默将合法化列为民主党的立法优先事项后，立法者首次提出了该法案的讨论草案。在收到1800多条评论后，参议员们今天公布了一项法案，旨在解决民主党和共和党对大麻监管的担忧。
该法案包括一系列公共安全措施和法规，修改了大麻的税收政策，要求对大麻使用的影响进行额外的联邦研究，并在大多数情况下取消了联邦工作人员的药物测试。
但反合法化的倡导者担心，新引入的立法不足以监管大麻的效力，并可能对儿童构成威胁，因为他们可能更容易获得合法化的药物。哈佛医学院成瘾医学中心的助理教授兰迪·舒斯特在周四的新闻发布会上说，这项立法在限制可能吸引儿童和青少年的产品方面做得不够。
“我们正处于一个政策远远超过科学的位置，做出与科学不一致的公共政策决定会带来相当严重的健康问题，”舒斯特说。
对支持者来说至关重要的是，民主党的提案也关注种族平等。它旨在通过从记录中删除联邦大麻定罪，并扩大受前联邦毒品政策影响的人获得贷款和营业执照的机会，纠正前联邦毒品限制对有色人种社区造成的不成比例的影响。
布克周四说:“这是一项全面的法案，纠正了许多错误。”“这是一个真正坚实的恢复性司法法案，为我们的国家打开了非凡的经济机会，将创造大量的就业机会，并将再次纠正司法的尺度。”
但曾在三届不同政府中担任白宫顾问的凯文·萨贝特(Kevin Sabet)周四表示，他担心股权提议无法实施。萨贝特现在是反合法化组织SAM(大麻的明智做法)的总裁兼首席执行官，他说合法化可能会创造另一个像“大酒精”或“大烟草”一样的危险行业。
“我们要把在街上卖大麻的穷人变成成功的大麻百万富翁的想法是一个梦想，”萨贝特说。“那种认为我们现在将最终正确对待大麻的想法，以及我们将放弃的其他所有事情，但这将发生很大变化，因为我们将在大麻问题上给予一些社会公平许可证，这是一个笑话。”
全美有色人种协进会此前曾呼吁合法化措施，包括在大麻行业平等获得营业执照。
Senate Democrats unveil long-awaited marijuana legalization bill
Senate Democrats on Thursday unveiled their long-awaited marijuana legalization proposal, announcing sweeping legislation that would lift the federal prohibition on the drug and cede power to states to determine how to regulate it.
The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, championed by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., looks to legalize marijuana at the federal level while creating FDA monitoring requirements like those that already exist for tobacco and alcohol.
"Cannabis legalization has proven immensely successful at the state level, so it is time that Congress catches up with the rest of the country," Schumer said in floor remarks Thursday. "I am proud to be the first Majority Leader ever to say that it is time to end the federal prohibition on cannabis, and this bill provides the best framework for updating our cannabis laws and reversing decades of harm inflicted by the war on drugs."
Schumer did not announce next steps on the legislation or whether he will attempt to bring it up for further consideration on the Senate floor, though he said he hopes to get something done on marijuana "this year".
Voter support for legalization is growing. According to April reporting by 538, a majority of registered voters in all 50 states now favor making cannabis legal. Eighteen states, plus Washington, D.C., have legalized the recreational use of marijuana for those over 21.
"I'd ask my colleagues in the Senate to think long and hard about what keeping the federal government stuck in yesteryear means for public health and safety," Wyden said in a statement. "By failing to act, the federal government is empowering the illicit cannabis market, it's ruining lives and propping up deeply rooted racism in our criminal justice system, it's holding back small cannabis businesses from growing and creating jobs in their communities. Cannabis legalization is here, and Congress needs to get with the program."
But Congress may not be as ready for a federal change. If Schumer does try to move the legislation forward it faces an uphill battle in the Senate. At least 10 Republicans would need to support the measure for it to pass, and not all Democrats would necessarily back it either.
Still, proponents of the legislation say the simple introduction of the bill is a step in the right direction.
"I'm very excited about this day, but it also now gives us momentum to get something done," Booker said, noting that the bill sponsors are looking for the best path to move the legislation forward.
"I want to stress that this is the beginning of the legislative process, not the end. We are going to work hard to create support for our bill, and I hope we can make more progress towards cannabis reform in the future," Schumer said.
Lawmakers first introduced a discussion draft of the bill last summer after Schumer branded legalization as a legislative priority for Democrats. Over 1,800 comments later, the senators unveiled a bill today that aims to attend to concerns among both Democrats and Republicans about regulating marijuana.
The bill includes a host of pubic safety measures and regulations, modifies tax policy on marijuana, requires additional federal research on the impact of marijuana use and removes drug testing for federal workers in most cases.
But anti-legalization advocates fear the newly-introduced legislation does not do enough to regulate potency of cannabis, and could pose a threat to children who might be more easily able to access the legalized drug. Randi Schuster, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School at the Center for Addiction Medicine, said at a press conference Thursday that the legislation does not do enough to set limits on products that might be appealing to kids and teens.
"We are in a position where policy has far outpaced the science, and making public policy decisions that are not aligned with science poses risk for quite a serious health concern," Schuster said.
Critical for proponents, the Democratic proposal also focuses on racial equity. It aims to rectify harm caused by previous federal drug restrictions that have disproportionately impacted communities of color by expunging federal cannabis convictions from records and expanding access to loans and business licenses for those impacted by former federal drug policy.
"This is a comprehensive bill to right a lot of wrongs," Booker said Thursday. "It's a really solid restorative justice bill, opens up our nation to extraordinary economic opportunity, would create a tremendous amount of jobs, and would again correct the scales of justice."
But Kevin Sabet, a former White House adviser for three different administrations, said Thursday he has concerns that the equity proposals aren't enforceable. Sabet, now the president and CEO of SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana), an anti-legalization organization, said legalization could create another dangerous industry like "big alcohol" or "big tobacco."
"This idea that we are going to turn people who would be poor selling marijuana on the street into successful marijuana millionaires is a dream," Sabet said. "The idea that we are going to now get it finally right when it comes to marijuana, and everything else we're going to let go the same but it's going to change a lot because we're going to give a few social equity licenses when it comes to marijuana, is a joke."
The NAACP has previously called for legalization measures that include equal access to business licenses in the marijuana industry.
