April 19, 2015
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey appeared on a CNN documentary on medical marijuana Sunday night.
Entitled "Weed 3: The Marijuana Revolution," it profiles Booker's efforts to pass sweeping federal reforms on drug laws and the availability of medical marijuana.
Booker, along with a fellow Democrat, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, introduced the legislation last month. The bill would remove marijuana from Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, and make it a Schedule 2 drug under the Drug Enforcement Agency's five-category classification system.
This means it would move from the tier including LSD and heroin, classified as having no medical value and a high risk for being abused, to the category that includes a number of prescription drugs such as oxycontin. The move would allow for medical testing on the federal level.
It would also get rid of the threat of federal prosecution in states where medical marijuana is legal and allow it to be prescribed by Department of Veterans Affairs doctors for certain conditions in those same states.
A video previewing the documentary shows Booker speaking during the announcement of the proposed legislation as well as explaining his views on the subject to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta, the host of the program.
"Let's stop the hypocrisy," Booker says in the video. "We now have had three presidents that have admitted to smoking marijuana. People in our public office, all throughout the Senate, have said 'Hey, I've smoked marijuana recreationally.'
"How much of a hypocrite do you have to be to say that I broke American laws using pot as a recreational thing, and that I'm not going to support this idea that as a medicine for severely sick people, that they shouldn't be able to access this drug?"
New Jersey is one of the 23 states (plus Washington D.C.) where medical marijuana is legal. Booker has been a vocal advocate of legalizing medical marijuana since his time as the mayor of Newark, and even hinted at trying to achieve federal reform of the nation's drug laws back in 2012.
