Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has voiced support for the Trump administration's move to reschedule marijuana under federal law, while cautioning that incremental cannabis reforms without equity and social justice provisions will fail those most harmed by criminalization.
Speaking on the Capitol Steps on Wednesday, she said the policy shift is welcome but insufficient. "Of course, I will always welcome a descheduling of marijuana from Schedule I," she said. "I will be supportive of that, because it reduces that harm, but it doesn't quite make all the wrongs right."
She warned that without justice measures, the same interests that gained from prohibition would gain again from legalization. "Many of the people who profited from the war on drugs will then profit also—double down on that profit—from legalization," she said. "And then the folks who were criminalized and had their lives destroyed by the war on drugs never get to see justice or have that made right. So I think that is a fundamental difference that we have here in the approach to that."
The Department of Justice announced last week that marijuana products regulated by a state medical cannabis license immediately moved to Schedule III, as did any marijuana products approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). A broader administrative hearing on cannabis rescheduling is set for this summer.
Ocasio-Cortez has previously voted for and cosponsored legislation to federally legalize and tax marijuana while establishing a new federal Office of Cannabis Justice to oversee social equity programs for the industry. She has also been a lead sponsor of legislation to facilitate expungement of past cannabis convictions, and has discussed her support for decriminalizing psychedelics.
The LCB contributed reporting from Washington, D.C.
