Chuck Schumer wants to end the federal prohibition on weed: 'The people are on our side'

[Eugene]

Source: Yahoo! News

Chuck Schumer wants to end the federal prohibition on weed: ‘The people are on our side’

After voters in Ohio overwhelmingly voted to legalize recreational marijuana last week, there is growing optimism that the rest of the country will soon follow.

Marquise Francis·National Reporter
Sat, November 18, 2023 at 5:00 AM EST·6 min read

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer believes an end to the federal prohibition on marijuana is finally within reach, thanks to a bipartisan piece of legislation that would give the cannabis industry access to banking services — something that has been elusive since states first began to legalize recreational marijuana more than a decade ago.

“Its time has come,” Schumer told Yahoo News in a video interview, noting that public support of cannabis has dramatically increased in the last 10 years — as evidenced by voters in Ohio, a traditional Republican stronghold, overwhelmingly voting to legalize recreational marijuana last week and becoming the 24th state to do so. “The people are on our side.”

What is the SAFER Banking Act?

The Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act, or SAFER Banking Act, which was passed in late September by a bipartisan majority in the Senate Banking Committee, would allow financial institutions to give out more small business loans while also providing legal protection for banks that work with cannabis retailers.

Earlier versions of the bill passed in the House seven times but failed to get the 60 votes needed to make it through the Senate. Now, Schumer says he will move the current bill, reintroduced in September, forward to the Senate floor “as soon as we have those 10 or 11 Republican votes” needed, but he did not specify a date.

-snip-

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/chuck-schumer-federal-prohibition-weed-cannabis-al-harrington-legal-100029027.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. More tax revenue while leaving

intact the unnecessary Trump tax cuts.

[Lunabell]

2. One of our city commissioners used to be against it until she talked to my wife.

Our little town has a legal grow operation. Our WONDERFUL city commissioner (literally, she really is great, that is not sarcasm) voiced her opposition on the neighborhood app. My wife, a medical marijuana patient, contacted her about the issue and she actually came over to talk.

Kat, my wife, told her about her medical issues and that she took absolutely zero opioids for her pain. That marijuana, when ingested, helps her like no other prescription medications. The commissioner was afraid of a grow operation that would bring in the "bad" crowd.

Kat explained that this company (Truelieve) had a good reputation, that the operation had security, video cameras, the workers were screened for past legal problems and monitored closely for dishonesty and theft. That this is a growing (pun intended) market and good for the city, providing jobs and taxes. This open minded lady changed her mind.

She now is fully supportive of medical marijuana and the grow house.

Recreational marijuana? Maybe she'll support that too.

[Chi67]

26. Yep

I have really bad irritable bowel syndrome. I tried everything with my gastroenterologist from dietary changes to pills- nothing worked. Then along came medical marijuana edibles, got rid of ALL my symptoms in a week. I have been symptom-free for almost three years now. I just take a small amount before bed each night. After almost 8 years of trying everything, and all it took was a little bit of weed. Amazing. While I am happy to have found a solution, I wish it had been available sooner.

[jfz9580m]

3. And one less reason to disproportionately incarcerate

African Americans..

[twodogsbarking]

4. When you put it that way it is unlikely to gain Republican support.

[jfz9580m]

5. Heh

But jokes aside, mass incarceration of African Americans over trivialities is the first thing that comes to my mind when I see stuff about pot legalization.

I mean Elon Musk can go and openly toke with celebrities. Whereas even with the sea changes in public attitudes lots of people (I don’t know the stats tbh, but I would imagine disproportionately black and or poor) are still languishing in prison over minor pot related offences. Again it is just a sense impression from scanning articles on the topic more than knowing the stats.

[twodogsbarking]

6. Duplicate. DU happens.

.

[twodogsbarking]

7. True words are often spoken in a joking manner.

They do get the wrong end of the stick. On purpose many times.

[jfz9580m]

8. I know-though I am hoping they back this

It would decrease so much suffering all around.

[barbaraann]

9. and low-income whites, etc.

When I was younger I saw many rich people get away with smoking weed and using drugs.

[jfz9580m]

10. Agreed

I added that in the post below-disproportionately black and or poor is my guess.
I have never thought that being poor and white looks much different than being nonwhite and poor.
https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/01/white-working-class-poverty/424341/

Divide and rule still works as a strategy sadly though.

[barbaraann]

11. We went right from the War in Vietnam to the War on Drugs

and the War on Poor and Minority people just kept on going...

[jfz9580m]

12. Give war a chance definitely seems to be the zeitgeist

(As an aside I sometimes read about the corporate guys in tech etc and as far as I can tell far too much is framed as a war bts. It is almost the better option when their strategies are framed as games, performance art or sport :-/. On the whole I would rather be the football of fate than a civilian casualty in a “war”.

I don’t get the whole overuse of the “war” metaphor. War is hell people ;-/..)

[barbaraann]

13. Nixon

...
Nixon’s speech marked the beginning of a new era of American drug policy. His announcement would lead to the mass imprisonment of domestic drug users from the 1980s onwards. But the real effect of Nixon’s speech occurred abroad. Here, rhetoric became reality; metaphor got real. Nixon’s speech let drug cops off the leash. And it sparked off a wave of extreme violence, which many drug producing countries in Central and Latin America are still living with today.

https://time.com/6090016/us-war-on-drugs-origins/

[jfz9580m]

14. Man that is a disturbing read

Between them Nixon and Reagan seem to have been behind a lot of America’s problems. And from my own grad school years I remember Bush and the Iraq war and of course now Trump. Poppy Bush is the best of the lot in the last 5 and a half decades or so.

[barbaraann]

16. If you search the DU archives for BFEE (Bush Family Evil Empire) you might even be more disturbed.

Or, here's a Guardian article about how GWB's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

I'm probably more negative/terrified about Republican/fascist politics than most people because I spent several years growing up in post-WWII Germany. What happened was not just an abstraction to me and it hasn't made me a more pleasant person to be around, sadly.

[jfz9580m]

20. Thanks for the link

Yeah my ex was actually into researching the ties between the GOP and the Nazis. He has a DU account somewhere though he definitely doesn’t use it anymore. He is pretty anti-fascist and vigilante about nazis. So I know a little bit about Poppy, Prescott Bush etc.

And it is not as if we are paranoid pot users. This is from Wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prescott_Bush

Bush was a founder and one of seven directors (including W. Averell Harriman) of the Union Banking Corporation (holding a single share out of 4,000 as a director), an investment bank that operated as a clearing house for many assets and enterprises held by German steel magnate Fritz Thyssen, an early supporter and financier of the Nazi Party.[10][11] In July 1942, the bank was suspected of holding gold on behalf of Nazi leaders.[12] A subsequent government investigation disproved those allegations but confirmed the Thyssens' control, and in October 1942 the United States seized the bank under the Trading with the Enemy Act and held the assets for the duration of World War II.[10]

Journalist Duncan Campbell pointed out documents showing that Prescott Bush was a director and shareholder of a number of companies involved with Thyssen. Bush was the director of the Union Banking Corporation that "represented Thyssen's US interests", continuing to work for the bank after America's entry into the war.[10][11]

I'm probably more negative/terrified about Republican/fascist politics than most people because I spent several years growing up in post-WWII Germany. What happened was not just an abstraction to me and it hasn't made me a more pleasant person to be around, sadly.

That sounds rough..I don’t think any of us are as pleasant as we could be given the way the world is.. .

[barbaraann]

23. Thank you for the thoughtful support.

[jfz9580m]

25. You too

[mitch96]

21. True. A buddy of mine that has more money than brains got his kid off a MJ charge for $10,000. No record

just a slap on the wrist. The lawyer knew the judge yada yada yada boom.
m

[barbaraann]

24. I met one young man who had been a junkie, then he got into medical school

because his uncle was the Dean and got five slots to fill with whomever he chose.

[Oopsie Daisy]

15. I wish it didn't stink so much. I can't drive anywhere without the smell of weed (from other drivers)

coming into my car. It's worse than cigarette smoke. In the winter time, maybe it won't be so noticeable (as both I and the smokers will likely have our windows rolled up and the vehicle's heater recirculating the interior warm air.) People even fire-up their weed on the metro platforms and on the trains. Metro police do nothing about it. But I bet if someone lit up a cigarette, they'd rush to the scene and shuffle the offender out in handcuffs. Maybe.

I'm old and intolerant of such things.

[ZonkerHarris]

17. Legalizing cannabis turns a money pool controlled by cartels into a stream of jobs, taxes, and revenue that

benefits all citizens.

[ZonkerHarris]

18. Prohibition is a failed public policy, again.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

19. Good idea

[mitch96]

22. This is great and I never thought this would happen in my lifetime..