U.S. Sens. Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren last week sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland urging that the Department of Justice remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances list.
The Democratic senators, from New Jersey and Massachusetts, respectively, wrote that descheduling marijuana is long overdue and “would allow states to regulate cannabis as they see fit, begin to remedy the harm caused by decades of racial disparities in enforcement of cannabis laws, and facilitate valuable medical research.”
The letter cites President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign trail words that “nobody should be in jail for smoking marijuana,” although Biden’s moderate stance on reform also has frustrated legalization advocates.
Increased pressure on the executive branch – Booker and Warren asked Garland to respond by Oct. 20 whether his office would order a review of marijuana’s classification – comes at a time that Congress is giving some consideration to the issue.