Federal lawmakers gathered in the nation’s capital on Wednesday in an attempt to jump start a proposal aimed at dragging the United States out of the seemingly bottomless pit of marijuana prohibition.
Earlier this year, Representative Thomas Garrett of Virginia began pushing a bill called the “Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act,” which calls for pot to become a part of legitimate American commerce. The proposal, which was officially introduced back in February, would eliminate the cannabis plant from the DEA’s Controlled Substances Act and allow pot products to be taxed and regulated in a manner similar to alcohol and tobacco.
As it stands, the bill currently has only 11 co-sponsors prepared to take to the streets in the name of legal weed – hardly enough to even give it a fighting chance in the Capitol. But this modest group of lawmakers believes that, no matter how much the cards are stacked against them, they must continue to try and persuade other members of Congress to take this issue more seriously. Otherwise, the country is doomed to continue jeopardizing the lives of hundreds of thousands of otherwise law-biding citizens.
“I have long believed…