WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) issued the below statement following Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to rollback federal marijuana policy. Sessions’ outdated and misguided views on criminal justice policy were the driving force behind Booker’s decision to testify against Sessions at his confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee last January.
“Jeff Sessions’ determination to revive the failed War on Drugs knows no bounds. History has shown that our deeply broken drug laws disproportionately harm low-income communities and communities of color and cost us billions annually in enforcement, incarceration, and wasted human potential, without making us any safer. This unjust, backwards decision is wrong for America, and will prove to be on the wrong side of history.”
Booker has seen the effects of the nation’s broken marijuana laws first-hand, dating back to his time as a tenant lawyer, City council member, and Mayor of Newark, where he created the city’s first office of prisoner re-entry to help formerly incarcerated individuals re-integrate into their communities.
In the Senate, Booker is the author of a landmark bill introduced last summer to end the federal prohibition on marijuana. He also sponsored a bipartisan, bicameral bill that would allow states to set their own medical marijuana policies free from federal interference.
