Growing Bi-Partisan Support on Heels of Obama Calling New Laws LegalizingMarijuana in Colorado and Washington ‘Important’
Today, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) expressed his support for allowing states to move forward with taxing and regulating marijuana, telling MSNBC that “having the states experiment is a good idea.”
Schumer, the senior U.S. Senator from New York and the third ranking Democrat in the Senate, made the statement just days after similar comments by Texas Governor and former Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Perry, defended the right of Colorado and Washington to legalize marijuana and said that Texas had implemented “policies that start us toward a decriminalization.” Perry was speaking on a panel about drug policy along with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, who both spoke out in favor of significant drug policy reform.
Schumer, Cuomo and Perry have joined a growing number of high-ranking officials – including President Barack Obama — expressing their support for states to move forward in reforming broken marijuana policies. In an interview last week with The New Yorker, President Barack Obama called the legalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington “important,” and went on to note that society should not “have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished.”
Statement by Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance:
“What makes the recent comments by Senator Schumer and Governor Perry so significant is not just that they are among the two most influential leaders in their respective parties but that both have generally favored repressive drug policies to date,” said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “This rapidly emerging bipartisan supportfor allowing states to enact and implement marijuana legalization laws, free from federal interference, gives much neededsupport to the Obama administration’s constructive steps in recent months.”
Join us in defending the truth before it’s too late
The future of independent journalism is uncertain, and the consequences of losing it are too grave to ignore. To ensure Truthout remains safe, strong, and free, we need to raise $24,000 by the end of today. Every dollar raised goes directly toward the costs of producing news you can trust.
Please give what you can — because by supporting us with a tax-deductible donation, you’re not just preserving a source of news, you’re helping to safeguard what’s left of our democracy.