Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) says Congress is getting “very close” to introducing and passing a marijuana bill with provisions covering banking access for legal businesses and expungements of past convictions, citing progress he’s made in discussions with a “bunch of Republican senators.”
During a debate with his Republican reelection opponent Joe Pinion on Sunday, Schumer was asked about a separate broader cannabis legalization bill he filed this year and whether he felt it would make more sense to first promote more research into marijuana before ending prohibition.
While the top senator said that research is “very, very important,” he pointed out that “many states have approved legalization of cannabis,” and so the policy is already “upon us.”
“But we are getting very close,” Schumer said in the debate, which was hosted by Spectrum News. “I am working in a bipartisan way with Democrats and Republicans to take the SAFE Banking Act, which allows financial institutions to involve themselves in cannabis companies and lend money to them—but it also does some things for justice, such as expunging a record.”
He gave the example of a 15-year-old busted over a “small amount of marijuana” who was ultimately sentenced harshly in a manner that would be consistent with possessing and selling heroin and whose “life was ruined.”
“So, expunging the records is important, and we’re getting closer,” Schumer said. “We may be able to get something done rather soon. I’m...
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