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Cory Booker to Introduce Marijuana Justice Act to legalize marijuana at federal level
- Thread starter platocplx
- Start date
Jefferson Sessions is vowing to get tough on weed again, because you know that's a super effective use of resources.
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MeisaMcCaffrey
What has the AG gotta do with it? There's nothing he can do if it becomes the law of the land.
We've got a lot in the wings so far. Booker, Kamala Harris, Al Franken, Tulsi Gabbard, maaaaybe Keith Ellison. All of them are gonna be relative newcomers to the spotlight compared to 4 years of Trump so that's a big advantage on our side.
He wouldn't even have a say, would he?
He's in charge of enforcing the laws others create.
There aren't enough votes in either chamber of Congress for criminal justice reform and/or marijuana legalization.
Even if there were enough for a narrow passage, McConnell - one of the last holdouts - would never bring it to the floor for a vote. The law will not change before at least 2018.
He probably shouldn't, but under our current clown administration... who knows
Aaron Strife
Banned
Christ please do not let it be Tulsi. I'm no Booker fan but I'd take him any day of the week.
Marijuana legalization is one of the biggest hypocrisies of the GOP. If they really were about the free market and less government they should be all over it. It gets the bonus of adding a shit load of tax revenue that could allow them to cut their rich buddies taxes safely. But nope, just shows what's really driving the GOP.
BoogieWoogie
Banned
But then it would take precious money from prisons!
Skinny Pete
Banned
Love it but not going anywhere with this shit administration we have.
HazySaiyan
Banned
Well good luck with that! Not a chance this passes
Shao Kahn Brewing a Stew
Banned
Because Republicans would chew him apart for it, and he secretly didn't want his daughters to smoke... Yet.
Too late, I guess. That said, it is inevitable.
Because there were far more important things to spend political capital on, and legalizing marijuana doesn't solve the underlying structures that create our horrifically unequal and wasteful criminal justice system.
Also, I'm not sure there were ever the votes. The success stories of WA and CO and the like didn't prop up and stabilize until Obama's term was nearly done. Need to be able to prove that it can work before you push it on a national level.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
My guess would be Harris, Franken, and Ellison don't run and Gabbard, if she runs, drops out early having won nothing. My guess would be Cuomo runs, my guess would be Booker runs. My guess would be Gillibrand and Klobuchar run. I suspect Tim Kaine will, if Mark Warner doesn't. I would guess you have a handful of governors -- maybe Kate Brown, maybe John Hickenlooper, maybe Terry McAuliffe. Maybe Biden (although I don't think he should). Maybe Chris Murphy. Martin Heinrich. Sherrod Brown I think said he wasn't but I think he might.
But honestly I'm a lot more interested in who the Republican nominee will be. My guess is Kasich, but Cory Gardner, Brian Sandoval, and Greg Abbott all look good to me.
Yes. This. Repubs did that and hurt Dems badly in obamas second term
Spoiler: it'll be Trump.
I think fewer D senators will run than we think. Seniority is so important in the Senate, they have a great, easy job. So the mid-tier veterans who don't have much charisma, like Warner or Klobuchar, have little upside to running for President. Someone like Kaine should run, but won't.
There are two types of senators: those who run for Senate and those who run for President. Think we'll find a lot of these Senators don't bring enough to the table to run for President.
also Gabbard will humiliate herself in spectacular fashion, and it will be glorious.
Brawly Likes to Brawl
Member
But Marijuana makes it so easy to put brown people behind bars.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Obama was a really procedural guy who liked to slowball things. Remember he spent his first term dragging his heels on DADT repeal to make sure the military jumped through all the right hoops in terms of study. It's only around late 2011 that he started getting a little louder on justice reform, LBGT issues, and immigration, and he was hamstrung most of his second term by not having any congressional support.
If you are that confident, you're leaving money on the table. PredictIt (correctly IMHO) has him at about a 50% chance of being the nominee in 2020. Remember that reasons he would not be the nominee could include: Impeachment, voluntary resignation, declining to run again, running again and losing a primary challenge, or death. If you disagree, though, you can make a lot of money because there's tons of liquidity in the betting line. Looks like you could make around $3,000 pretty easily without soaking up all the liquid positions by going long.
But running for president doesn't cost them their Senate seat and the profile raise might benefit their committee assignments after they lose.
Phrozenflame500
Member
Indeed. This is one of those issues where the Repubs are going to have to relent one way or another, Americans already have majority support for the legalization of marijuana and now we have state-models for how legalization would work on top of that. It's definitely a winning issue.
Good idea, but I imagine his stock will fall even more as we get closer to a 2018 midterm wave. The only threat is a heart attack for his fat ass.
It's usually detrimental when running for re-election. Brown, for example, will have very difficult time convincing the voters of Ohio that he's looking out for their interests if he's also about to run for President. Hillary was handcuffed in 08 because of it. It's dumb, but common.
On the other hand, a safe D senator doesn't offer much to the table in winning over the Trump voter (not that it'll stop Booker of course). So I think the field naturally winnows itself in some ways.
Running for president is super expensive and every dollar you get from your donors (the initial bunch who brought you to the dance in the first place) towards the presidency is a dollar that you can't spend towards re-elect.
It's funny, when they were trying to legalize medical marijuana here in Florida (and passed but the state is holding it up because fuck your votes that's why!) the main campaigners against it was the fucking police. Everytime you turned around the sheriff was on tv in an ad fearmongering and lying his fucking ass off. "Anyone can get scripts, your kids will get it easy, doctors will be handing it out like candy". The biggest counter campaign against them? The fucking lawyers, couldn't believe I was cheering for lawyers during that. The cops stooped so low they had an ad running showing Halloween and saying if the bill passed people were going to be handing out pot candy to your kids at Halloween. Come the fuck on, if you got pot candy why the fuck would you waste it like that?
It isn't just the young vote anymore. A lot of people have turned to pot instead of opiates.
It's also a much better experience and far less dangerous than drinking
Netherscourge
Banned
Booker is a half-fraud.
1. He was buddy buddy with Sessions right up to his AG confirmation hearing.
2. He takes campaign funding from Pharmas and voted against Bernie Sander's Prescription Drug bill.
I just can't take him seriously.
1. He was buddy buddy with Sessions right up to his AG confirmation hearing.
2. He takes campaign funding from Pharmas and voted against Bernie Sander's Prescription Drug bill.
I just can't take him seriously.
Cesare Borgia
Banned
Nobody believes this.
I'm not opposed to Booker, I won't support him in the primaries but if he's the nominee I'd vote for him obviously. But Booker is probably the worst candidate to run while Russian-linked hackers are reading people's emails....DMs...
LegendofJoe
Member
Not bad Booker but Eric Garcetti is still my guy for 2020.
This would pass if it was up to the American people, and not the current crop of blowhards we have pulling the levers of government in the house and senate.
Most of them are old enough to remember when it was still called "reefer"... And they've all been in Washington long enough that they need to have gone long long very long ago.
Most of them are old enough to remember when it was still called "reefer"... And they've all been in Washington long enough that they need to have gone long long very long ago.
They know it would put them outta work it's wildly ignorant when they don't have the same issues with people on opioids than they ever would with weed
Hale-XF11
Member
Watching him speak right now: https://www.facebook.com/corybooker/videos/10157111094132228/
That's generally what happens when pharmaceuticals are one of the largest industries in your state. It's not a good look, but like Sherrod Brown gets a ton of funding from the Ohio AG industries. Local industries funding candidates always seemed par the course.
its kinda strange to criticize gop senators for being "deeply concerned" but voting in line with the party anyway while calling out a dem senator for being "buddy buddy" with Sessions but in the end voted no to his AG appointment
seems contradictory
The bigger issue is that he's a total sleazebag who's been cravenly chasing power his entire career, and has a bizarre reliance on big money donations for a guy who's in a rock-solid blue city and a rock-solid blue state. Booker doesn't have a signature accomplishment he can point to in his career.
How on earth are they contradictory? They're both woefully insufficient.
Gotta love liberal purity tests.
peppermints
Member
On the topic of 2020, I didn't think Franken would run until I read his most recent book. It seems like a lot of it was setting the groundwork for at least putting his name out there.
LegendofJoe
Member
She has the worst chance, it'll be Hillary Clinton all over again.
Warren isn't very popular outside of the Dem base.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
(Sherrod) Brown doesn't really need to declare before his re-election campaign in 2018 and I would guess whether he chooses to run or not depends on whether he's re-elected and the choice to run for 2020 is not going to impact a re-election campaign, should he want one, in 2024.
But I also think you overestimate the risk it is for them to run even in the year they're up for re-election. In a recent example, Rubio essentially gave up his Senate seat to run, then literally gave up his Senate seat by announcing his retirement, then ambled into the election campaign at the latest moment possible and said "yeah I'm going to run again", and still easily carried the FL seat. Yeah, Trump carried FL and the coattails were good, but nothing about the 2010 -> 2016 transition suggests Rubio was impacted by his decision to run and that's a purple state. Running also does not appear to have hurt Kasich (Gov, also a purple state), or Paul (red state), or Sanders (blue state). You can make an argument it hurt Christie (blue state), I guess.
NullPointer
Member
Long overdue.
Even if this fails it should be reintroduced again and again until it passes.
Even if this fails it should be reintroduced again and again until it passes.
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