Cory Booker: “I rise to talk about the Marijuana Justice Act--a bill I introduced today that would end the Federal prohibition on…”

“I rise to talk about the Marijuana Justice Act--a bill I introduced today that would end the Federal prohibition on marijuana and start to end the War on Drugs. For far too long we have approached drug use and addiction as something we can jail ourselves out of. It is beyond clear that approach has failed. It is time we start to address the persistent and systemic racial bias that has plagued our criminal justice system and adopt policies that will move us forward, not backward. It is time to de-schedule marijuana. Since 2001, arrests for marijuana have increased across the Country and now account for over 50 percent of all drug arrests in the United States. The ACLU conducted a thorough study of over 8 million marijuana arrests between 2001 and 2010. It found that 88 percent of those were for marijuana possession. Alarmingly, the study also found that African Americans are 3.73 times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than their white peers, even though they use marijuana at similar rates. Over the last five years, States have begun to legalize marijuana in an effort to push back on the failed War on Drugs and combat the illicit drug market. Currently, eight States and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana and more States are taking up measures to follow suit.…”