TULSA — A US Senator from New Jersey says the nation’s marijuana laws unfairly target the poor, minorities, the mentally ill, and veterans.
He believes it’s time to remove marijuana from the list of Schedule I narcotics, effectively making it legal to use from a federal perspective.
He laid out his arguments Tuesday in a Facebook Live video from his D. C. office.
Eight states and the District of Columbia have already made marijuana legal for recreational purposes.
He says his bill would also encourage states to legalize marijuana, allow people convicted of marijuana possession to appeal, and create a community reinvestment fund, allowing those he says have been “disproportionately affected” by the enforcement of marijuana laws to recover from decades of the abuse of those laws.