Title
Calling upon the Congress of the United States to pass S.1689, legislation offered by Senator Cory Booker, to federally decriminalize and otherwise improve public policy with relation to marijuana.
Body
WHEREAS, Marijuana, or cannabis, is a psychotropic drug with medicinal, recreational, and religious applications that has been used for several millennia into the present, with at least half of the American population reported having done so, according to current polls; and
WHEREAS, Marijuana does not present or increase the risk of overdose deaths, long-term health problems, violent crime, or serious injury, making it safer than alcohol or tobacco, despite its fictitious reputation as a so-called "gateway drug"; and
WHEREAS, Marijuana criminalization at the federal level was sold with explicitly racist arguments about who used it and to what effect, which set the stage for racist enforcement of marijuana bans, a legacy that has continued in places that have legalized medical uses or moved towards a summary offense regime; and
WHEREAS, The federal prohibition on marijuana has ignored state concerns, including preexisting bans in some states, research into medical application, and prioritization of both enforcement and treatment dollars; and
WHEREAS, Federal enforcement practice began to align more closely with renewed state medical marijuana programs in 2013, when a memorandum from then-Deputy Attorney General Cole laid out the parameters by which those programs would not initiate federal prosecution, which was reinforced the following year, when Congress adopted a budgetary rule preventing appropriations from being used for those very prosecutions; and
WHEREAS, The recent rescission of the Cole memo by Attorney General Jefferson Sessions upends the beneficial side of limited federal deregulation, which includes medical relief from those with certain illnesses and conditions, reduction of opioid abuse, and economic development, ...
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