END THE WAR ON CANNABIS
For generations, the United States has arrested, prosecuted, incarcerated, and denied opportunities to millions of people for possessing a plant that is now legally sold in much of the country.
That has to end.
Our Cannabis Freedom Act will fully legalize cannabis under federal law, erase federal cannabis convictions, protect legal cannabis businesses, expand medical research, and make sure corporations don't get to turn legalization into another monopoly.
Cannabis should be regulated responsibly.
It should not be a reason to put somebody in jail.
Legalize Cannabis Nationwide
We will remove cannabis entirely from the federal Controlled Substances Act.
Not move it from Schedule I to Schedule III.
Deschedule it.
The federal government will no longer criminalize adults for possessing, using, growing, manufacturing, or legally selling cannabis.
States will retain the ability to establish reasonable regulations governing the legal cannabis market, just as they do with other regulated products.
Federal prohibition has failed.
It is time to end it.
Expunge Federal Cannabis Convictions
Legalization means very little if people are still carrying criminal records for conduct that is no longer a crime.
Our plan will establish a process to automatically expunge eligible federal cannabis convictions and review the sentences of people still incarcerated or under federal supervision for cannabis offenses.
A cannabis conviction should not follow someone for the rest of their life.
It should not prevent someone from:
Getting a job
Going to school
Finding housing
Receiving federal assistance
Starting a business
Participating fully in their community
If it's legal today, people should not continue being punished for doing it yesterday.
Stop Punishing Families Over Cannabis
A past cannabis offense should not cost someone their future.
Our plan will prohibit the federal government from denying otherwise eligible public benefits solely because of cannabis possession, use, or an eligible cannabis conviction.
It will also end immigration penalties based solely on conduct involving cannabis that is legal under federal law.
No family should be torn apart over a substance the government itself has decided should be legal.
Let Scientists Actually Study Cannabis
For decades, federal prohibition has made legitimate cannabis research unnecessarily difficult.
We will open the door to comprehensive research into cannabis, cannabinoids, and their potential medical uses.
That includes research into:
Chronic pain
Cancer-related symptoms
Epilepsy and seizure disorders
PTSD
Neurological disorders
Palliative care
Addiction treatment
Other potential therapeutic applications
Science should determine what cannabis can and cannot treat.
Not politics.
Publicly Funded Research Should Belong to the Public
If taxpayers pay for medical research, taxpayers should benefit from it.
Federally funded cannabis research will be made publicly available, and discoveries arising directly from that research will be subject to strong public-interest licensing requirements.
Private pharmaceutical corporations should not be allowed to take taxpayer-funded research, lock it behind patents, and charge Americans outrageous prices for access to medicines developed with their own money.
And corporations should not be able to claim exclusive ownership over naturally occurring cannabis plants or naturally occurring cannabinoids.
A plant that grows in nature should not become somebody's private monopoly.
Give Small Businesses a Fair Shot
Legal cannabis should not become another industry controlled by a handful of giant corporations.
Cannabis businesses operating legally under federal and state law will be eligible for Small Business Administration loans, technical assistance, and other federal small-business programs.
We will make it easier for:
Small farmers
Independent growers
Local retailers
Cooperatives
Minority-owned businesses
Businesses owned by people and communities harmed by cannabis prohibition
to participate in the legal market.
Legalization should create opportunities for ordinary Americans, not simply transfer cannabis from the underground economy to Wall Street.
Tax It and Invest the Money Back Into Communities
Legal cannabis products will be subject to a reasonable federal excise tax.
A portion of that revenue should be reinvested in communities that bore the greatest costs of the War on Drugs, including investments in:
Job training
Small-business development
Reentry programs
Addiction and mental-health services
Youth programs
Legal assistance and expungement
Community development
For decades, government spent billions enforcing cannabis prohibition.
Legalization gives us an opportunity to put some of that money back into the communities prohibition harmed.
Know Who Benefits From Legalization
The Bureau of Labor Statistics will regularly collect and publish demographic information about ownership and employment in the legal cannabis industry.
If legalization creates a multibillion-dollar industry, Americans deserve to know who owns it, who works in it, and whether the communities most harmed by prohibition are actually benefiting from legalization.
Keep Cannabis for Adults
Federal legalization does not mean a free-for-all.
The legal age for purchasing recreational cannabis will be 21.
We will establish strong national standards governing labeling, testing, product safety, advertising, and restrictions on marketing to children.
Legalization and regulation go together.
Stop Arresting People for a Plant
We have spent generations treating cannabis as a criminal-justice problem.
It didn't eliminate cannabis.
It filled jails, ruined lives, created an enormous illegal market, restricted scientific research, and disproportionately harmed working-class communities and communities of color.
We can keep doing something that hasn't worked.
Or we can finally admit the obvious.
Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it. Study it. Expunge the records. And stop putting people in cages for cannabis.
