Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren are calling on the attorney general (“AG”) to put an end to federal marijuana prohibition. Last week, the two sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s office; the letter argued that the Justice Department should begin a process to de-schedule marijuana, which would help advance valuable medical research, allow the government to start remedying the harm caused by years of racial disparities in the enforcement of marijuana laws and allow states to regulate the plant as they saw fit.
The senators also explained that decriminalizing marijuana would address the racial inequities faced by people of color when it came to marijuana law enforcement, given that people of color were more likely to be criminalized over cannabis, despite the presence of comparable usage rates among races. In the letter, they wrote that federal marijuana policy had disproportionately impacted the ability of individuals of color in the throughout the United States to not only pursue education but also vote and build intergenerational wealth.
Justin Strekal, political director of the National Organization For The Reform of Marijuana Laws, applauded this action, stating in an interview that it was important to pursue every avenue to end the cruel policy of cannabis prohibition.
There exists a statutory process through which the AG can seek to change cannabis policy under the Controlled Substances Act without involving Congress. The attorney general can begin the process by requesting a scientific review to be done by the Department of Health and Human Services. After this is done, the FDA would be required to evaluate the public health and the medical and scientific implications of cannabis before the review was presented to the Justice Department.
Another avenue would involve having an outside party or the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services file a petition to reschedule cannabis, which would be reviewed by the AG, who has assigned that responsibility to the DEA. The two senators recommend that the attorney general use the former approach, noting that the approach involving the Health and Human Services secretary would produce a recommendation that was not binding.
The letter comes a week after the House Judiciary Committee passed a measure that was introduced by Chairman Jerrold Nadler. The measure’s objective is to promote social equity and federally legalize marijuana. Earlier this week, Eric Holder, the former attorney general, also stated in an interview that the United States was on the path to decriminalizing cannabis at the federal level, as more states advance reform.
The decriminalization of cannabis at the federal level would open the door for more users of medical marijuana to the experience the benefits of combining their plant medicine with cutting-edge devices such as the RYAH Smart Inhaler made by RYAH Group Inc. (CSE: RYAH) as well as other helpful devices or technologies.
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