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By: Ellen Cans
Several Democratic lawmakers in New York State, including US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Jerry Nadler are calling on the Biden administration to lighten the federal prohibition on weed.
As reported by the NY Post, on Sunday the NY state lawmakers urged Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Drug Enforcement Administration to ease up on cannabis on a federal level, arguing that the current laws drafted back to the 1970s have already “torn apart” too many lives. The Democrats note that weed is currently in the same classification as heroin, and is in a more dangerous category than fentanyl or cocaine. “I think it’s clear: It’s time to legalize marijuana and expunge nonviolent marijuana convictions,” Gillibrand said during a press conference in Harlem on Sunday afternoon.
Gillibrand, 57, who has served in senate since 2009, said she plans on sending a new letter regarding the topic on Monday to the Department of Justice and the DEA, hoping it will “turn up the heat.” “I’ve been pushing this now for four years, and there’s no excuses left,” insisted Gillibrand, who formerly also served as member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 2007 to 2009. “The drug was classified as a Schedule 1 controlled substance in the 1970s as part of President Nixon’s punitive war on drugs,” Gillibrand added. “Since then, countless lives have been torn apart as individuals and primarily black and brown communities have been targeted and arrested for nonviolence, cannabis-related offenses.”
Nadler, 76, who serves as U.S. representative for New York’s 12th congressional district, which includes central Manhattan, also said the “original sin” was placing weed in the Schedule 1 category with drugs like heroin “where it obviously did not belong.” “No one should have to wear a cannabis conviction like a scarlet letter,” Nadler said. “It is time to end the prohibition and criminalization of marijuana at the federal level.
Gillibrand told The Post that because cannabis is scheduled the same way as dangerously addictive drugs, it cannot be used medically on the federal level, including for Veterans Affairs, even though it’s “one of the best medicines for PTSD for our service members.” She argued that : “We’ve had the scourge of fentanyl and opioids on Long Island and across New York state to great detriment, [with] many young people dying. And that is not the impact of cannabis.”
Gillibrand also brought up the economic advantages of legalizing cannabis on the federal level, saying it would spur economic growth. She noted that other countries have already legalized the drug, including Canada. “And if our markets, our proprietors who are selling cannabis cannot compete with Canada, cannot compete with other states, it means our business from New York goes abroad or goes to other markets,” Gillibrand said. “And it’s really harming our business owners here in New York City and in New York state.”
Last year, President Joe Biden already took the initiative to wipe clean the criminal records of thousands of people who were federally convicted of use or simple possession of marijuana. NY Democrats, however, are still not satisfied and want the White House to go further. “This is a way to allow the most-harmed communities to participate in the economic opportunities that will come from this. It will create jobs and employment in the workforce,” State Sen. Cordell Cleare, 58, a Harlem Democrat, told The Post.
