Sen. Elizabeth Warren released a new plan for sweeping cannabis reform and legalization on Sunday. In her “Justice and Equitable Cannabis Industry” plan, the Massachusetts senator calls for major federal cannabis reform with a focus on correcting systemic wrongs, especially in communities of color, policing, and convictions. “It’s about undoing a century of racist policy that disproportionately targeted Black and Latinx communities,” she states in her plan.
Before we get into the details of Warren’s plan, here’s a quick review of where the remaining Democratic presidential contenders stand on cannabis. Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana Pete Buttigieg; and Tom Steyer all support federal legalization. Former Vice President Joe Biden and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, however, are notably less progressive on legalization. Sen. Bernie Sanders has the most wide-reaching, progressive proposal for cannabis reform and legalization so far.
As outlined in her plan, Warren wants to enact policies that would benefit and center communities systemically harmed by criminalization efforts, as well as make it safer for immigrants to get involved in the cannabis industry without fearing deportation or having citizenship status denied. Warren also wants to reinforce the authority of tribal sovereignties to maintain their own drug policies. She also wants veterans to have access to medical cannabis. In terms of the cannabis industry as a whole, her plan also encourages organizing and unionizing for workers.
While economic opportunity doesn’t cancel out decades of harm caused by the so-called War on Drugs, it’s a concrete step forward to creating a more fair future. Relatedly, Warren’s social equity plan aims to address “damage done to communities that have been unjustly targeted” by way of $500 million in funds each year, coinciding with Sen. Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act, which she’s long-supported.
Notably, Warren wants to expunge prior federal cannabis convictions. Focusing on the future, Warren argues, is not enough when “countless individuals who have been arrested or incarcerated for behavior that we now recognize should never have been criminalized in the first place—many of whom are living with collateral sanctions that trap people in a paper prison long after their arrest.”
Warren pledges to appoint top people who support cannabis reform as agency heads, including to head the Department of Justice, the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. “In my first 100 days,” she writes, “I’ll direct those agencies to begin the process of delisting marijuana via the federal rule-making process.”
If you’re curious about why her plan (and this article) uses “cannabis” instead of “marijuana,” Warren actually covers that choice in her plan, too. What’s wrong with saying marijuana? In her plan, Warren explains, “The term ‘marijuana’ itself was racialized, meant to associate the plant with Mexican-origin people, stigmatizing both. And ever since, Black and Brown communities have suffered disproportionately from draconian enforcement of anti-marijuana laws. It’s not justice when we lock up kids caught with an ounce of pot, while hedge fund managers make millions off of the legal sale of marijuana. My administration will put an end to that broken system,” she writes.