Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey) announced his bid for the 2020 U.S. Presidential campaign, including in his announcement his official backing for an end to cannabis prohibition, according to a MarketWatch report.
Sen. Booker talked about how our country needs radical empathy to bring the country back together and when asked by the hosts of the show about his stance on incarceration and drug policy, he took a strong stance against the drug war.
“We all pledge an oath in this country, we literally swear an oath that we are going to be a nation of liberty and justice for all. For the country that professes the ideals of freedom, to have one out of every four incarcerated people on the planet Earth here in America, to have one of every three incarcerated women on the planet Earth here in America, this is a cancer on the soul of our country and it hurts everybody. … I’m committed to this fight. … I’m gonna talk about changing our criminal justice system. … It means changing our drug laws; ending prohibition against marijuana.” — Sen. Cory Booker on the Tom Joyner Morning Show
Sen. Booker was the primary sponsor for the Marijuana Justice Act, which aims to remove cannabis from its federal Schedule I status. Booker was able to secure many other high profile co-sponsors for the bill, which contains provisions that would attempt to repair the damage caused to minority communities across the country.
Booker was also at the confirmation hearings for potential Attorney General William Barr and questioned the nominee about his stance on cannabis policy that, causing Barr to make statements that he would not “go after” state-legal cannabis businesses.
While other Democratic party Presidential hopefuls such as Sens. Kamala Harris and Elizabeth Warren have adopted favorable stances towards cannabis, Sen. Booker is the first “front runner,” so to speak, with such a long track record of supporting cannabis reforms. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws gave him an A+ politician rating.
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