On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) joined the Pod Save America podcast and revealed who her “dream blunt rotation” would be when asked. It was hypothetical, as she doesn’t smoke, and the senator kept things positive in her responses.

In what they called a special President’s Day edition episode Feb. 19, Pod Save America co-host Jon Favreau (the former Barack Obama staffer, not the MCU actor) asked her about her push to deschedule pot, and also who she’s most and least likely to invite to a blunt rotation out of a list of pre-selected choices. 

The list of choices for the “dream blunt rotation” included politicians like President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well as celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and Taylor Swift.

Warren played along, not keeping things too serious, revealing that she could only pick one person for her dream rotation. “I’m just doing The Rock four times,” she said, laughing.

When Favreau asked about her “nightmare blunt rotation,” she was given the choices of her perceived opponents: Elon Musk, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, and Mark Zuckerberg. 

Warren declined to answer, keeping things classy.   

“I’m starting to feel a little sick,” she laughed. “That is really awful to contemplate.”

Earlier in the conversation, Favreau also asked her about a more serious topic—her recent push to deschedule cannabis, joining several other lawmakers. 

“You and other Democratic senators recently asked the Biden administration to remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act—entirely—which would decriminalize it on a federal level. Have you heard back from DOJ or the DEA, or had any conversations with the administration about this?

“DEA?” She asked. “We’re pushing on them now. I want them to deschedule marijuana altogether. Look, if the Republicans didn’t block us, we’d run this through Congress. You just legalize it.

“There still could be regulations around it like there is around alcohol—you’ve got to be a certain age, you got to have certain disclosures about the potency and so on, I’m all for that,” Warren said. “But I really want to say to the DEA: Guys, come on. It is not 1958, and we don’t need to be terrified of this stuff. Let’s just deschedule it and go forward.” 

Pod Save America is hosted by former Obama aides Favreau, along with Jon Lovett, Dan Pfeiffer, and Tommy Vietor.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s Push to Deschedule

During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Warren discussed the push to deschedule cannabis fully rather than moving it from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.

“Right now marijuana is scheduled, it’s called, as a drug by the DEA at the same risk as heroin,” Warren said. “And that means not only is it illegal, you can’t even do research on it. It’s, so no—and what we’re saying in this letter is, ‘Guys get with it,’ at the DEA. It’s not 1954. More than half of all states have legalized marijuana.”

In a letter led by Warren and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA), along with nine other Democrats including U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) among others. 

The letter urges the DEA and Biden administration to deschedule cannabis altogether, recognizing that rescheduling to Schedule III would be a “significant step forward” but would not resolve the “worst harms of the current system.”

“Thus, the DEA should deschedule marijuana altogether. Marijuana’s placement in the CSA has had a devastating impact on our communities and is increasingly out of step with state law and public opinion,” the legislators said in the letter dated Jan. 30.

Warren routinely calls for a just and equitable cannabis industry. But the biggest change possible would be removing cannabis entirely from the list of controlled substances.

Biden could use a boost this upcoming general election, given what’s at stake. A January survey, conducted by Lake Research Partners, revealed a number of key findings surrounding registered voters and attitudes surrounding cannabis, namely that Biden could boost his favorability by 11% among younger voters should cannabis move from Schedule I to Schedule III.

The survey demonstrated the support behind rescheduling cannabis, with 58% of participants showing support and 19% opposed. Researchers wrote that support also crossed most demographic lines, and no more than one-third of voters in any major subgroup was opposed to rescheduling. Young voters, those aged 18-25, showed the strongest levels of support for rescheduling at 65%, with nearly half indicating they felt strongly about the issue. Support was strong across age demographics, with seniors showing support by a double-digit margin.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told Yahoo News! in a recent interview that believes the end to the federal cannabis prohibition is on the horizon, with legislation to provide cannabis industry access to banking services in the works.

He’s talking about the Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation Banking Act  (SAFER Banking Act) which was passed in late September by a bipartisan majority in the Senate Banking Committee. The bill would allow financial institutions to give out additional small business loans while also providing legal protection for banks that work with cannabis retailers, like any other industry.

“Its time has come,” Schumer told Yahoo News! in a video interview. Thanks to the legalization of adult-use cannabis in Ohio, tipping the scales in terms of U.S. populations that now live in legal states, the pressure is on.

It’s important to note that the U.S. House of Representatives has approved earlier versions of the SAFER Banking Act—seven times—but the bill failed to gain 60 votes in order to advance to a Senate vote.

“Fifteen years ago, before marijuana was legalized anywhere, people said, ‘Oh, there’ll be a lot more crime’, ‘People will become much more addicted’. Guess what? None of that happened,” Schumer said, noting the lasting harm of the War on Drugs, which failed to extinguish drug abuse but instead led to the harsh criminalization of Black and brown communities. It’s bad enough that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the War on Drugs “the New Jim Crow.” 

A 2020 analysis by the ACLU found that 43% of drug arrests in 2018 were for charges of possession and sale of cannabis, and even though data shows that white and Black Americans use cannabis at equal rates, Black Americans are nearly four times more likely than white Americans to be arrested.

“The bill tries to rectify some of these injustices,” Schumer said.

We’ve heard these comparisons before. Schumer said similar things in 2021, as the Biden administration was first gearing up. Two years ago, he said the sky didn’t fall when pot became legal for adult use in a handful of states.

“In 2018, I was the first member of the Democratic leadership to come out in support of ending the federal prohibition. I’m sure you ask, “Well what changed?” Well, my thinking evolved. When a few of the early states—Oregon and Colorado—wanted to legalize, all the opponents talked about the parade of horribles: Crime would go up. Drug use would go up. Everything bad would happen,” Schumer told Politico. “The legalization of states worked out remarkably well. They were a great success. The parade of horribles never came about, and people got more freedom. And people in those states seem very happy.”

Why the SAFER Banking Act Needs to Be Adopted into Law

The cash-only cannabis industry is open season for burglars and criminals who know that dispensaries are loaded with cash, not having capabilities to run purchases on debit or credit cards.

“Forcing legal businesses to operate in all cash is dangerous for our communities,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, lead sponsor of the bill, said in a statement. “The only people benefiting from the current system are criminals.”

Some are doubtful the outcome will be any different this time around, after the Senate was done making revisions to the bill.

“The Senate’s rewrite … throws out carefully crafted bipartisan work and crams in gross overreach to potentially crush industries not in line with the president’s agenda,” Republican Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer told Politico in September. “As it’s currently written, it is dead on arrival in the House.”

The SAFER Banking Act advanced in the Senate Banking Committee last September, clearing a big hurdle in the path to legal cannabis businesses potentially moving away from the dangerous cash-only system they currently operate on.

“Cannabis banking is just one part of the necessary conversation about marijuana policy. There is still much work to be done to acknowledge and mend the damage done by the war on drugs, work to make sure everyone—including our veterans—has access to the medicine they need and allow medical and scientific research on cannabis,” said Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Sherrod Brown, in a press release.

SAFER Banking would provide much-needed legal protections for financial institutions to serve businesses in the currently cash-dependent cannabis trade.

If passed, the SAFER Banking Act could provide a much needed lifeline for an industry forced to do business in cash which puts thousands of budtenders, delivery drivers, growers and other ancillary cannabis sector employees at risk of violent crime. It would also provide capital for businesses currently forced to operate using their own money or capital secured through private sources.

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Proponents’ hopes were dashed once again, after GOP senators fought against including the measure in a defense budget bill.

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that he and his colleagues are “very close” to passing legislation that would authorize financial institutions to provide services to cannabis businesses.

Speaking during a debate in his New York senate race, Schumer signaled that the SAFE Banking Act may finally be close to earning full passage.

“I am working in a bipartisan way with Democrats and Republicans to take the SAFE Banking Act, which allows financial institutions to involve themselves in cannabis companies and lend money to them—but it also does some things for justice, such as expunging a record,” Schumer said during the debate, as quoted by Seeking Alpha.

The SAFE Banking Act was passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives in February, marking the sixth time that the body approved the legislation. 

The legislation was first introduced all the way back in 2013. If it were to become law, it would provide vital resources to cannabis retailers in states where adult-use marijuana has been made legal. 

Those shops have become susceptible to robberies, due to the large amounts of cash on hand. 

In March, the Seattle Times reported that there had already been 70 armed robberies in Washington state in the first three months of the year. That was more than double the total in both 2021 and 2020.

“You rob the places where the cash is,” Washington state treasurer Mike Pellicciotti said on a trip earlier this year to Washington, where he lobbied lawmakers to pass the SAFE Banking Act. “These robberies are tragic. But these robberies are also preventable.”

”You can’t have a $1.4 billion a year transaction taking place in the state of Washington in cash and not have the risk of these type of robberies … It’s time,” Pellicciotti added.

Pellicciotti and other state treasurers have been among the bill’s biggest advocates.

“Colorado weed stores, along with other states with legal cannabis businesses, are headed into their busiest week of the year,” Colorado state treasurer Dave Young tweeted earlier this year ahead of the 4/20 festivities, “yet these businesses must dangerously operate in a cash-based world. Let’s pass the #SAFEBankingAct this #fourtwenty.”

Democratic leaders like Schumer have been determined to pass some form of cannabis reform since the party secured control of Congress and the White House in 2020. 

Schumer spoke confidently last year about passing a federal legalization bill––even as President Joe Biden expressed reluctance about fully lifting prohibition.

“We will move forward,” Schumer said at the time. “[Biden] said he’s studying the issue, so [I] obviously want to give him a little time to study it. I want to make my arguments to him, as many other advocates will. But at some point we’re going to move forward, period.”

In April, the House passed the the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, the federal statute that enshrines prohibition. 

Democrats in the Senate said that they would produce their own legalization bill, but the legislation’s release never came.

Now, with the midterm elections slated for next week––and with Democrats in jeopardy of losing control of both the House and the Senate––the hopes for federal legalization are dimming. 

That isn’t to say that cannabis reform advocates have come up completely empty with Democrats in charge.

Last month, Biden announced that he is issuing pardons to everyone with federal convictions for marijuana possession. Biden also signaled a desire to remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.

“Federal law currently classifies marijuana in Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, the classification meant for the most dangerous substances.  This is the same schedule as for heroin and LSD, and even higher than the classification of fentanyl and methamphetamine – the drugs that are driving our overdose epidemic,” Biden said in his announcement.

“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana,” he added. “It’s time that we right these wrongs.”

As Seeking Alpha noted, the version of the SAFE Banking Act under consideration “includes both banking reform and marijuana conviction expungements.”

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In this episode: The total rundown on the Cannabis Administration Opportunity Act and how to beat the heat with weed!

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A Senate panel met on Tuesday to consider a bill that would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level, less than a week after the legislation was introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and two Democratic colleagues. The bill, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, was introduced on July 21 by Schumer, the senior senator from New York, Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden of Oregon and New Jersey’s Senator Cory Booker.

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, which is chaired by Booker, discussed the legislation and heard testimony from witnesses at a hearing held at the nation’s Capitol on Tuesday. Under the nearly 300 pages of legislation, marijuana would be removed from regulation under the federal Controlled Substances Act, where the drug is listed under the most restrictive Schedule I, and states would be allowed to create their own cannabis policies. The measure would also establish a national tax on cannabis products, expunge records of past federal cannabis convictions, and allow nonviolent cannabis prisoners to request resentencing.

Booker, the chair of the subcommittee and the only Black senator on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said that national cannabis prohibition has “miserably failed” and has led to a “festering injustice” of enforcement policy that disproportionately targets Black and Brown communities. According to a 2020 report from the American Civil Liberties Union, Black people in America are almost four times more likely to be arrested for a cannabis-related offense than whites, despite relatively equal rates of pot use.

“Cannabis laws are unevenly enforced and devastate the lives of those most vulnerable,” Booker said during the Tuesday hearing.

Witnesses Testify To Support Cannabis Decriminalization Bill

Weldon Angelos, a former federal cannabis prisoner and criminal justice reform advocate, appeared before the subcommittee to testify in favor of the legislation. Sentenced to 55 years in federal prison for a first-time cannabis conviction and firearms possession charge, Angelos spent 13 years behind bars before being released in 2016. He told the senators at the hearing that expungement is a vital element of cannabis policy reform.

“Each arrest, prosecution, conviction and sentence makes the world a little bit smaller for those bearing the modern scarlet letter,” Angelos said, referring to what life is like for those with a conviction for a drug offense.

Representatives of the law enforcement community also testified in favor of the legislation to reform the nation’s marijuana laws. Edward Jackson, chief of the Annapolis Police Department, told the subcommittee that “there is nothing inherently violent” about cannabis.

Jackson said that decriminalization would permit police officers to concentrate on more serious crimes and help restore the community’s trust in law enforcement.

“I have spent far too much time arresting people for selling and possessing cannabis,” Jackson testified.

Senator Tom Cotton, a Republican from Missouri, lodged his opposition to the cannabis legalization bill and expungement, arguing that the legislation “would wipe clean the criminal records of illegal alien traffickers.”

“When these criminals trafficked marijuana, they broke the law,” Cotton told his colleagues on the subcommittee. “Whether some find that law unfashionable or even unfair, what they did was illegal.”

Cannabis Industry Reacts to Senate Hearing

Mason Tvert, partner at cannabis policy consulting firm VS Strategies, told High Times after Tuesday’s hearing that it “is refreshing to finally see a significant discussion of cannabis policy in Congress’ upper chamber.”

“History has shown that the more people talk about and hear about cannabis, the more quickly support grows for ending its prohibition,” Tvert wrote in an email. “Hopefully there will be more to follow, and members will have an opportunity to continue hearing about the many important aspects of this major policy issue, from expungement and equity to the economics and public safety benefits of legalization.”

Ryan G. Smith, co-founder and CEO of online cannabis wholesale platform LeafLink, urged lawmakers to approve comprehensive cannabis policy reform at the national level.

“For far too long, communities of color have been disproportionately harmed by unjust cannabis laws,” Smith wrote in an email to High Times. “Today’s hearing was a step forward, but now it’s time for Congress to take real action to end prohibition and support communities that have been unfairly targeted and left behind.”

But George Mancheril, co-founder and CEO of cannabis industry lender Bespoke Financial, is not optimistic that meaningful cannabis policy reform measures will be approved in the near future, noting that less controversial bills such as the Secure and Fair Enforcement (SAFE) Banking Act, which would allow banks to offer financial services to legal cannabis companies, have not fared well in the upper chamber of Congress.

“This hearing was an important step towards federal cannabis legalization but illustrated the long road still ahead. Passing comprehensive legislation is significantly harder than limited scope proposals such as the SAFE Banking Act which stalled in the Senate numerous times,” Mancheril said in an email. “The current political and economic environment will likely continue to keep all such cannabis focused bills on the fringe of political discussion and unlikely to pass any time soon but we hope that future hearings will drive the discussion towards the mechanics and timeline for federal regulation to provide greater clarity and transparency to the industry and to all stakeholders.”

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Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer joined other New York policymakers and advocates on Sunday for the launch of the Bronx Cannabis Hub, a community center providing resources for residents interested in social equity opportunities in the legal cannabis industry. Schumer, who last week introduced a much-anticipated bill to federally legalize marijuana in the U.S. Senate, said the new center would provide needed support to the community and can establish New York as a leader in cannabis policy reform.

“This cannabis hub should serve as a model,” Schumer said at Sunday’s opening. “Not just to New York City and not just to New York State. Let there be hubs like this throughout the country.”

The Bronx Cannabis Hub will provide resources for residents of the Bronx who have endured decades of the harmful effects of cannabis prohibition policies and enforcement. The center is a project of The Bronx Defenders, a public defender non-profit that is transforming how low-income people in the Bronx are represented in the legal system, in partnership with The Bronx Community Foundation. In addition to Schumer, the weekend launch of the cannabis hub was attended by New York State Senator Gustavo Rivera, Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson, Bronx community leaders and cannabis policy reform advocates.

Social Equity in Cannabis Legalization

New York’s 2021 law that legalized adult-use cannabis, the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act (MRTA), includes social equity provisions to ensure that members of communities disproportionately harmed by the War on Drugs have a path to business ownership in the regulated cannabis industry.

“As public defenders, we have seen first-hand the impact marijuana criminalization and its racist enforcement by the NYPD has had on the people in the Bronx,” Justine Olderman, executive director of The Bronx Defenders, said in a statement to High Times. “For decades, a single marijuana arrest could result in a person losing their job, healthcare, home, and even separation from their children and deportation from their families.”

At Sunday’s launch, Drug Policy Alliance executive director Kassandra Frederique said the new resource center in the Bronx is “a true community resource supporting social equity in New York’s legal cannabis landscape.”

“During the decade-long fight to pass the Marijuana Regulation and Taxation Act we were clear that the people and communities most impacted by devastating enforcement of the marijuana arrest crusade should be those to benefit from the legal industry,” said Frederique. “The Bronx Cannabis Hub will be a crucial part of fulfilling that shared vision and opening up opportunities and avenues for community members – especially those who have been directly impacted – to thrive in New York’s new green era.”

Addressing the Harms of Prohibition

Social equity provisions in the MRTA include the automatic expungement of past cannabis convictions, investment of 40% of cannabis taxes in communities disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and equity in the licensing of cannabis businesses. The New York Office of Cannabis Management is currently drafting regulations for the program and state officials have announced that the first 100 to 200 licenses for cannabis retailers will go to businesses that qualify as social equity applicants.

“Communities of color in The Bronx have suffered disproportionately from the harms of cannabis prohibition, from arrest and incarceration to job loss and eviction,” said Desmon Lewis, co-founder of the Bronx Community Foundation. “The Bronx Community Foundation is proud to partner with The Bronx Defenders on The Bronx Cannabis Hub, a first-of-its-kind initiative that will right some of these historic wrongs, by helping our communities to participate in the new, legal cannabis industry. In doing so, The Hub will further The Foundation’s goals of advancing neighborhood stability, solving systemic and institutional challenges, and building generational wealth.”

The Bronx Cannabis Hub will also launch a clinic in partnership with cannabis law attorney Cristina Buccola, with the participation of pro bono law firms and support from the New York Cannabis Project, to assist eligible candidates with the licensing process and create educational programming.

“Now that cannabis is legal, a new economy is taking shape, and the communities most harmed by this failed drug war must be at the forefront,” Olderman added. “We are proud to join The Bronx Community Foundation and our other partners today to launch The Bronx Cannabis Hub, a new resource that will provide critical training, guidance, and legal support to turn historical harm into economic opportunity.”

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With Congress set to break for its traditional August recess––and with this year’s midterm elections drawing nearer––Democrats in the Senate finally appear ready to introduce a bill that would end the federal prohibition on pot.

The Senate Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism has scheduled a hearing for next week that is titled, “Decriminalizing Cannabis at the Federal Level: Necessary Steps to Address Past Harms.”

The chair of the subcommittee, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), has taken a leading role in crafting the Senate’s cannabis reform legislation.

The hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Bloomberg had reported previously that Senate Democrats intended to introduce the bill this week.

Whenever the legislation drops, it will represent long-awaited action from a Democratic caucus that has moved methodically on cannabis reform––despite repeated pledges from party leaders that it will get done.

At the beginning of April, Democrats in the House of Representatives passed their own pot legalization package: the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would deschedule cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act.

Senate Democrats said they would move forward with their own cannabis reform bill that has been overseen by Booker, Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. 

After previously saying that the Senate would release its own version by the end of April, Schumer said that the bill would likely be introduced closer to the Congressional recess in August.

And after recent suggestions that Senate Democrats might be looking to offer up a more modest reform package, it now appears that they will seek to match the House and end the federal prohibition as well.

Politico reported last month that Schumer “doesn’t have the votes to pass a sweeping marijuana decriminalization bill — despite repeatedly touting his support for ending federal prohibition,” and that “realization is leading Senate Democrats to look for a compromise on weed.”

But Bloomberg reported last week that Democrats will indeed introduce the bill that Booker, Wyden and Schumer have been working on: the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, which will also remove pot from the Controlled Substances Act, although it would also give states discretion to establish their own cannabis laws.

Bloomberg noted that “the legislation faces long odds in the evenly divided chamber,” with 60 votes necessary for passage.

The bill faces significant opposition from Republicans in the chamber, and even some Democratic members.

President Joe Biden has long said that he is in favor of decriminalization of cannabis, but not outright legalization––though he has struggled to explain the distinction.

Earlier this week, Biden reiterated his belief that no one “should be in prison for the use of marijuana,” and said that he is working with Congress on a bill to fulfill his promise to release inmates serving time for pot-related offenses.

It is unclear whether he supports either the House’s MORE Act or the Senate’s Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act.

Despite the slow-motion progress of the bill in the Senate, Schumer has been unequivocal in his support for sweeping cannabis reform.

“We will move forward,” Schumer told Politico last year. “[Biden] said he’s studying the issue, so [I] obviously want to give him a little time to study it. I want to make my arguments to him, as many other advocates will. But at some point we’re going to move forward, period.”

“In 2018, I was the first member of the Democratic leadership to come out in support of ending the federal prohibition. I’m sure you ask, ‘Well what changed?’ Well, my thinking evolved. When a few of the early states—Oregon and Colorado—wanted to legalize, all the opponents talked about the parade of horribles: Crime would go up. Drug use would go up. Everything bad would happen,” he added. “The legalization of states worked out remarkably well. They were a great success. The parade of horribles never came about, and people got more freedom. And people in those states seem very happy.”

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The wait for the Senate’s version of a cannabis legalization bill will continue for months, with Democratic leaders in the chamber indicating Thursday that it will come sometime in the summer.

According to The Hill, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that he’s proud of the progress senators have made in “bringing this vital bill closer to its official introduction” before the recess in early August.”

The timeline marks a shift from what Schumer had said previously and it may dismay legalization advocates who had hoped that the Senate’s legislation would arrive sooner—especially after the U.S. House of Representatives passed its own bill to end prohibition on the federal level earlier this month.

The New York Democrat said after the House’s passage that he hoped the Senate would unveil its legalization measure by the end of this month.

On April 1, the Democratic-led House passed the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, effectively ending the federal prohibition on pot.

Sen. Cory Booker, a New Jersey Democrat who is working with Schumer and Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden on the Senate’s legalization bill, said that the bill passed by the House was unlikely to win approval in the Senate, which is also controlled by Democrats.

“Right now we’re looking at doing the one that we’ve been working on for a long time,” Booker said, as quoted by Roll Call.

According to The Hill, Schumer said that the Senate’s bill is titled “the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act,” and the majority leader said the legislation will remove cannabis from the federal list of controlled substances and “help repair our criminal justice system, ensure restorative justice, protect public health, and implement responsible taxes and regulations.”

Schumer and other Democrats on Capitol Hill have made it clear since the party took control of Congress and the White House last year that they intended to move on federal legalization.

In an interview with Politico last year, Schumer said that Democrats would take action, despite President Joe Biden’s reluctance to support legalization.

“We will move forward,” Schumer said. “[Biden] said he’s studying the issue, so [I] obviously want to give him a little time to study it. I want to make my arguments to him, as many other advocates will. But at some point we’re going to move forward, period.”

Schumer said in the interview that seeing legalization work on the state level contributed to his evolution on the issue.

“In 2018, I was the first member of the Democratic leadership to come out in support of ending the federal prohibition. I’m sure you ask, ‘Well what changed?’ Well, my thinking evolved. When a few of the early states—Oregon and Colorado—wanted to legalize, all the opponents talked about the parade of horribles: Crime would go up. Drug use would go up. Everything bad would happen,” Schumer said. “The legalization of states worked out remarkably well. They were a great success. The parade of horribles never came about, and people got more freedom. And people in those states seem very happy.”

During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden said that he supported decriminalizing cannabis, but stopped short of advocating legalization.

Following the House’s passage of the MORE Act earlier this month, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the president believes “current marijuana laws are not working.”

“We look forward to working with Congress to achieve our shared goals, and we’ll continue having discussions with them about this objective,” Psaki said at a press briefing.

Winning over Biden may prove easier than getting support from Republicans, however. As The Hill noted, “Many Republicans are opposed to legislation legalizing marijuana, posing one of the biggest hurdles to Schumer getting such a measure through the 50-50 split Senate,” and that to “secure passage, Democrats would need the support of their entire caucus, and at least 10 Republicans to bypass a likely filibuster.”

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Sen. Cory Booker, Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plan to release cannabis legislation to both end the federal prohibition of cannabis and help communities that are most impacted by the War on Drugs, possibly by the end of the month.

Sens. Booker, Wyden, and Chuck Schumer introduced a discussion draft of the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) last July, which would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level and allow states to decide whether to make it legal. It would also expunge nonviolent cannabis crimes, and taxes would be allocated to help communities hit hardest by the War on Drugs.

Since releasing the outline of the bill, lawmakers called for feedback on what to include and exclude from the final bill. The community responded. NORML, for instance, called for strengthening civic protections to clear records, revising outdated testing requirements, and providing a pathway for small businesses to compete with large ones. Others showed concern about tax rates.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced at a press conference in February that he intends to formally introduce the bill in April. NJ.com reports that the bill is almost written, and due to drop towards the end of the month. While the media is targeting April 20 as a good symbolic date for an announcement, the Senate is in recess through April 22, so a bill being introduced during the week of April 25 is more likely.

“I don’t mean this to be fully in jest but there’s been a lot of conversation about doing it on 4/20,” Booker told news outlets at the U.S. Capitol. “Aspirationally, I would love to see it done on 4/20 but I can’t speak to that, given all the things that are sort of backing up in the Senate.”

The U.S. House approved another comprehensive cannabis bill on April 1, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, but that gained support from only three Republicans. Booker needs the support of at least 10 GOP senators if the Senate is to pass any sort of legislation, but remains optimistic about ending prohibition the right way.

“This cannot just be about simple legalization,” Booker said. “It has to be about restorative justice. We had a really awful run of prohibition. This war on drugs has been not a war on marijuana. It’s been a war on people. This idea that you can just suddenly legalize or decriminalize and have so many Americans still suffering the consequences for having a criminal conviction where they can’t get a job, a loan from a bank, that’s just patently unfair. So this is a bill built around those ideas of restorative justice.”

Steven Hawkins is president and CEO of the U.S. Cannabis Council (USCC), as well as the former executive director of Marijuana Policy Project. Hawkins said that we don’t have the full bill quite yet, but a few things stand out. A full list of the USCC’s guidance for the draft discussion was released last September, but a few immediate issues come to mind.

“First of all, the proposed tax, at least in the draft, had the federal tax at 25% on top of high state taxes that exist currently,” Hawkins told High Times. “It would just make it impossible for the industry to succeed in most states. So that would have to be addressed. And then the question of primary jurisdiction. The draft proposed that the FDA have primary jurisdiction. We certainly have concerns with the role of the FDA. We’d rather see the Tax and Trade Bureau have primary jurisdiction.” 

The CAOA would also establish a regulatory framework for cannabis under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB). Descheduling would also normalize income tax for legal cannabis businesses, meaning existing businesses would no longer be subject to Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code. But some argue cannabis should be regulated more like alcohol. “The Tax and Trade Bureau is already dealing with adult-use products with alcohol and tobacco,” Hawkins said. “We’d want that agency to have jurisdiction over cannabis as well.” 

The bill, once introduced, will head to the Senate, where it will pass through several committees and converge with more. “The bill—to our knowledge—will intersect with at least a dozen committees,” Hawkins said.

The CAO Act (or CAOA) has been characterized as a states’ rights bill, allowing states to choose, and differs from bills such as Rep. Nancy Mace’s States Reform Act, mostly due to the inclusion of items such as social equity provisions.

“Normally legislation this comprehensive doesn’t pass on the first go,” Hawkins said. “You have to build support. What we saw with the MORE Act, was that there were some Republicans asking questions: How do we protect children. How do we deal with intoxication. There were a couple people who said, absolutely not, we should not allow this ever, but there were not anywhere close to the majority in terms of comments during the hearing. What we’re seeing is the maturity of our movement. There are now competing bills in the House of Representatives with Nancy Mace’s bill, the MORE Act, etc.”

While some leaders worry about the bill’s odds in the Senate under the current Congress, others worry about the tax implications. Rep. David Joyce opposed the MORE Act, issuing an announcement citing that it has no chance of passing the Senate, while others disagree.

“The movement towards cannabis descheduling and legalization is growing stronger and stronger,” Hawkins said. “We now have competing visions in the House. We’ll see what Republican support emerges in the Senate. It may be—given the partisan nature of the Senate—that the CAO bill will just be seen—rightly or wrongly—as simply a Chuck Schumer bill. But that doesn’t mean if a Republican bill were to emerge in the Senate, that there would not be [more supporters].”

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