Rolling Stone: Elizabeth Warren: Jeff Sessions Acted as “Catalyst” for Weed Legalization

This year, President Donald Trump broke ranks with Attorney General Jeff Sessions and signaled he supports new legislation called the STATES Act, which would end the outright federal ban on marijuana by allowing each state to decide their own pot policy.  

This was good news for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), one of the bill’s original sponsors. Warren teamed up on the effort with Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) who was pivotal in getting the president to endorse the broad contours of their bill. Despite the support of a bipartisan group of 10 senators, along with 28 members of the House of Representatives, the legislation hasn’t gone anywhere since it was unveiled earlier this summer. That’s in part because Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell remains fiercely opposed to relaxing the current federal ban on marijuana, which classifies pot the same as any Schedule I narcotic, like LSD or heroin.  

“The way over that hurdle is to get enough Republicans to push Mitch McConnell,” Warren says. But barring McConnell’s support, Warren has a Plan B. She argues that the 2018 midterms could prove decisive in deciding the future of federal marijuana policy. While pot remains illegal federally, nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use — including her home state of Massachusetts — and the majority of states have legalized cannabis for medicinal use. Warren predicts that if Democrats recapture Congress this fall they would do away with the current discrepancy between federal and state marijuana laws.  

Read the full story on the Rolling Stone website here.

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