Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is putting his name on legislation to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, saying "it's the right thing to do," Vice News reported Thursday.
According to Vice News, the bill — expected to be released within the next week — would remove marijuana from Drug Enforcement Administration's list of controlled substances, leaving it up to states to decide how to regulate the drug.
"Ultimately, it's the right thing to do," Schumer told the news outlet. "Freedom. If smoking marijuana doesn't hurt anybody else, why shouldn't we allow people to do it and not make it criminal?"
Vice News reported the bill also would create some funding for minority and women-owned marijuana businesses, provide money for research into overall effects of marijuana and its specific effect on driving impairment, and would maintain federal authority to regulate pot advertising in the same way it does alcohol and tobacco.
"My personal view is legalization is just fine," he told the news outlet. "The best thing to do is let each state decide on its own."
Schumer told the outlet he has never smoked weed, but left the door open.
"Maybe, I'm a little old, but who knows?" he said.
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