Cory Booker Goes All In on Cannabis

Yesterday, Sen. Cory Booker introduced a bill that, if successfully passed, could legalize cannabis nationwide.

The bill has a dual goals: To end the federal prohibition of cannabis, AND encourage states to legalize it as well.

What sets the Booker bill apart from similar bills by, say, Senator Bernie Sanders, is that not only does it offer to DE-schedule cannabis (it is currently on Schedule 1 of the Drug Enforcement Agency's Schedule of Controlled Substances); it actively encourages states to legalize cannabis in a way that will unravel the interwoven layers of prohibition (Federal, State, and City-level) that combine to create barriers to commerce, restrict the flow of medicinal cannabis to patients, limit research, weaken regulatory controls, keep tax revenues from governments, enrich criminals, fortify the black market and solidify the vulnerability of communities to violent crime.

That's a mouthful, so the short-and-sweet version: Remember how the Prohibition of alcohol ONLY resulted in organized crime providing alcohol? Well the prohibition of cannabis creates all the same challenges, and all of those listed above. The Booker bill could be a roadmap to a new day.

Some pundits give the bill absolutely no chance of passing. But the fact that it's been proposed at all suggests that the end of cannabis prohibition could be near.