With the ongoing debate and deliberation on whether to legalize marijuana backing more support each coming day, California Senator Kamala Harris has come out and vowed to support Senator Cory Booker’s bill which seeks to make marijuana legal. Kamala announced her support in a video that was delivered to Now This News. The legislator who is a possible contestant for the White House race in 2020 announced on Thursday that she would be backing marijuana act that was initially introduced by Senator Booker in August.
While defending her view to support the bill, Harris claims that the law applied to marijuana is discriminating and is not enforced in the same way for all people. The legislator faulted treatment of law enforcement’s on African-Americans terming it as unfair and which drove her to support the bill. The legislation seeks to change marijuana’s grading as listed drug under controlled Substance Act and make it legal at the federal level. If this bill is passed, it will require all federal courts to review and possibly erase all the records of Citizens with previous offenses linked to use or possession.
Harris was quoted in the video saying “As a former prosecutor and as a Senator, I vividly understand this, and I know it is the best thing to do.” Harris also said, “Am more concerned about what we want and where we need to be as a country rather than where we’ve been.” Harris said that the war on drugs was a war on certain communities which is evident in the fact that African-Americans consume marijuana at nearly the same rate as Whites but are roughly four times more likely to get arrested for possession. The Senator admits that by legalizing cannabis, it will prevent the Justice Department from imposing laws that are unjust and unfair.
In February Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand signed to co-sponsor the Booker act. The New York Senator who is also a possible contender for the White House race in 2020, announced that she would be pushing for implementation of the marijuana act alongside Senator Bernie Sanders who is also eyeing the top job in America come 2020. Chuck Schumer who is the Senate Minority leader proposed to decriminalize marijuana on a federal level last month.
Washington D.C and other nine states have so far legalized marijuana to be used by adults of over 21 years for recreational use. Michigan will conduct a vote this year seeking to legalize marijuana; if the vote goes through, it will make it the 10th state and the first in Midwest to legalize marijuana.
