[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 123 (Wednesday, July 14, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S4872]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                               Marijuana

  Mr. President, now on another subject, later today, on marijuana, I 
will join my colleagues Senators Booker and Wyden to release draft 
legislation to reform the Federal marijuana laws, principally to end 
the prohibition on marijuana at the Federal level for the first time in 
several generations.
  Over the past decades, Americans' attitudes toward marijuana have 
undergone a dramatic transformation. Listen to this: Nearly 70 percent 
of Americans support legalizing adult use of marijuana--70. Eighteen 
States, plus DC, have passed laws on adult use of marijuana. Thirty-
seven States and DC have legalized marijuana for medical use.
  The States are supposed to be our laboratory for democracy, and by 
all accounts, these experiments have been a success. The doom-and-gloom 
predictions of the naysayers--oh, crime will go way up, drug use will 
go all the way up--have never, never materialized. I note that a State 
like South Dakota had it on its ballot in the last election. In that 
conservative State, the majority people voted in the same direction 
that we are talking about here.
  For decades, for decades, young men and young women, 
disproportionately young Black and Hispanic men and women have been 
arrested and jailed for even carrying a small amount of marijuana in 
their pocket, a charge that often came with exorbitant penalties and a 
serious criminal record because of the overcriminalization of 
marijuana, and it followed them for the remainder of their lives. It 
makes no sense, and it is time for change.
  Now is the time for Congress to engage in this debate, update our 
Federal laws to not only reflect popular wisdom but science. Marijuana, 
amazingly in this 21st century, is still treated by Federal law with 
the same hostility as heroin, despite it being far, far less dangerous.
  So I greatly look forward to releasing this draft legislation with my 
colleagues Senators Wyden and Booker today. We will speak about how our 
bill will address the issues relating to updating our Federal marijuana 
laws, not just ending the Federal prohibition, but how it will ensure 
restorative justice, protect public health, and implement responsible 
taxes and regulations.