The Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings Tuesday in the nation’s capital that could lead to the legalization of marijuana or at least clarify the mixed messages the federal government has sent to states that have legalized marijuana in some capacity.
Requested by its committee chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, the timing was triggered by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s statement that federal authorities no longer will interfere in states that have adopted laws to either allow medical marijuana or legalize the drug entirely.
At a time of severe budget cutting, Leahy questioned whether federal prosecutions of marijuana users are the best use of taxpayer dollars.
“Leahy favors legalization,” said Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the nonprofit lobby group Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C.
Riffle said he hopes for a breakthrough in the hearing that would lead to changes in federal banking laws, allowing marijuana sellers to accept credit cards and checks, not just cash.
That would do a lot to legitimize the nation’s fledgling marijuana industry, safeguarding transactions from the risk of robberies and smoothing the route away from the black market and Mexico’s cartels, Riffle said.
“But the biggest question, the elephant in the room, is that we have an administration that’s essentially working around federal law” to allow states to legalize marijuana.
“What we should do is just change federal law — just legalize marijuana,” he said.
This fall, Michigan lawmakers could take up bills that would ease laws on marijuana and widen medical users access to it.
Momentum is building, more than 52% of American’s favor legalization, members of both parties have expressed that they will follow the will of the people, and it is well documented that the prohibition of marijuana has created a lucrative underground commodity for organized crime and led to the costly measures of putting marijuana users through the criminal justice system and incarcerating them. Today’s Senate Hearing is a landmark day for marijuana activists across the country.Senate Hearing on Marijuana Scheduled for Today
