Sen. Chuck Schumer introduced legislation Friday that would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level.
"The time has come to decriminalize marijuana. My thinking -- as well as the general population’s views -- on the issue has evolved, and so I believe there’s no better time than the present to get this done. It’s simply the right thing to do,” Schumer said in a statement.
The legislation includes laws that would prevent distribution of marijuana from states where it is legal to states where it is not, Schumer's statement said.
"This legislation would let the states be the laboratories that they should be, ensure that woman and minority owned business have a fair shot in the marijuana industry, invests in critical research on THC, and ensures that advertisers can’t target children," Schumer said in the statement.
"A staggering number of American citizens, a disproportionate number of whom are African-American and Latino, continue to be arrested every day for something that most Americans agree should not be a crime,” Schumer wrote Friday in Medium.
The senator discussed the legislation Thursday with Vice News.
"If smoking marijuana doesn’t hurt anybody else, why shouldn’t we allow people to do it and not make it criminal?” Schumer asked.
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