Top US Senator Charles Schumer introduces bill to decriminalise marijuana
The legislation would leave it to states to decide whether to make marijuana commercially available
The Senate’s top Democrat announced Friday that he is introducing legislation to decriminalise marijuana, the first time that a leader of either party in Congress has endorsed a rollback of some of the country’s oldest drug laws.
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of New York in a statement called the move “simply the right thing to do”.
“The time has come to decriminalise marijuana,” Schumer said. “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.”
Below is a video of legal marijuana sales in California that began earlier this year.
Schumer first shared his intentions on Thursday in an interview with Vice News, in which he decried the negative effects of current marijuana law, under which the drug has the same legal classification as heroin.
“The time for decriminalisation has come, and I hope we can move the ball forward on this”