“Legal marijuana is coming, it’s just around the corner!”

How many times have you heard some form of this statement?

While the current iteration of Congress has attempted to pass legislation of Marijuana reform in various forms, very little outside of lip service has been accomplished. From the MORE Act, the SAFE Banking Act, and the most recently introduced draft of the CAOA, there has been a flurry of activity, but next to nothing to show for it.

However, that might soon change. On February 4, 2022, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer publicly declared that he and his team are prioritizing getting federal marijuana reform on the Senate floor within the coming months, with an April 2022 target.

It should be distinguished that Schumer’s plan does not call to legalize marijuana on a federal level, but it does call for the federal decriminalization of marijuana, which would be a universal step in the right direction and potentially easier to garner the ever elusive bipartisan support needed to pass it.

On average, the enforcement of current marijuana possession laws costs taxpayers $3.6 billion a year, yet there has been no reduction in the use, prevalence, or availability of the plant. Not to mention the disparate impact that marijuana laws have on people of color, with Black individuals being 3.73 times more likely to face arrest for marijuana possession over white individuals. This isn’t new information, we have known the failed efforts of the war on drugs for years, but now it seems Congress is poised to at least start to right the wrongs.

But we have heard this before, so why should we believe Schumer and his cohort now? Detractors will be quick to point out that Schumer opposed the SAFE Banking Act in 2021 despite large bipartisan support and a sweeping passage in the House. Upon first glance this conduct by Schumer would seem antithetical to his current rhetoric, but there are some key differences that make this new announcement differ from the past bills that have made it through the House only to be squashed in the Senate.

Unlike the SAFE Banking Act which only addresses the issues of banking for legal state marijuana dispensaries, and was recently passed in the House for its sixth time, this time as an amendment to the America COMPETES Act, Schumer’s new proposal would address the banking issue as well as tackle other problems caused by the current laws surrounding marijuana sale, use, and possession.

Schumer has gone on record saying that he doesn’t want to pass marijuana reform piecemeal, and instead believes his and fellow Sens. Cory Booker and Ron Wyden’s, CAOA proposal will be the best option to address all concerns surrounding marijuana laws. Whether based out of legitimate concern or simply ego to claim himself as the catalyst of marijuana reform, he has something of a point.

The United States first made marijuana illegal in 1937 and since then it has been nothing but a downward spiral into demonizing a largely misunderstood and statistically harmless drug. By passing bills that only address minor issues surrounding marijuana laws we potentially run the risk of becoming complacent on passing reform that address the more harmful effects of it’s illegality, such as non-violent criminal convictions, drug cartels, and unfettered black market production.

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The CAOA, as currently written, would address all of the above as well as the banking issues, and it is unlikely that after final revisions, Schumer, Booker, and Wyden’s proposal would remove these provisions.

More than anything it is about time that American lives are no longer ruined from non-violent criminal convictions based around the possession or distribution of marijuana. In a country in which 18 states have legal recreational marijuana and 37 have legal medical marijuana, the current labeling of marijuana as a Schedule 1 substance is arbitrary and capricious at best, and disingenuous and malicious at worst.

With demonstrated bipartisan support, if done with finesse, there is reason to believe that this time Schumer and this Senate can finally pass a substantial bill on marijuana reform. The decriminalization of marijuana on a federal level would be a massive victory for civil liberties, health and safety, and criminal justice. The only question is if this is just another puff of smoke, or if this puff will finally pass.

Addison Hosner is a licensed Florida attorney and solo practitioner based in Orlando, Florida. He is a Young Voices commentator, speaker, and writer.