U.S. Senate Democrats roll out draft bill to legalize weed

&gt;&gt;He added that marijuana use needs more research.<p>I wish that we had this same attitude towards chemicals sprayed on crops where it seems to be everything is fine until proven to be harmful. Yet with weed it is harmful until proven safe. Also, I suspect there is plenty of research on the safety of weed<p>edit: to all of those arguing that there may be&#x2F; are dangers to weed, I don&#x27;t disagree. How about the fact that I can choose to not ingest weed, I have to eat and it is quite difficult to find disclosures about chemicals sprayed on the food available, and many of these chemical have been researched far less then weed.

&gt; would expunge federal non-violent marijuana crimes, further medical research and allow cannabis companies access to essential financial services.<p>Sounds like all good things but I dont see how this will make it through such a divided senate where obstructionism is the de-facto opposition strategy.

I find it amusing that &quot;weed&quot; is on the same tier of drugs as Heroin, LSD, MDMA and it is an entire class above Cocaine, fentanyl, oxycodone [1].<p><i>Schedule I drugs<p>— High abuse potential.<p>— There is no accepted use for these drugs in medical practice.<p>— They cannot be prescribed.<p>— Drugs include heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and mescaline.<p>Schedule II drugs — High potential for abuse and dependence.<p>— Generally require non-refillable, written prescription.<p>— Drugs include morphine , codeine , methadone , oxycodone , hydromorphone , meperidine , fentanyl , cocaine...</i><p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;uptowho.com&#x2F;contents&#x2F;UTD.htm?35&#x2F;43&#x2F;36535?source=see_link&amp;anchor=H268753597#H268753597" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;uptowho.com&#x2F;contents&#x2F;UTD.htm?35&#x2F;43&#x2F;36535?source=see_...</a><p>Note: the above is a free version of UpToDate (physician portal that is widely used in the field.)

I&#x27;m not a smoker but Im glad this is finally happening. It&#x27;s tragic how many people had their records ruined by minor possessions charges and I hope they&#x27;re made whole. I think a non-trivial portion of any new legal sales should go to anyone who was charged and jailed for selling it previously.

Now that half the states have already legalized it and reaps a ton in tax revenue, the fed wants their cut at a time when tax revenue is drying up. These states have been ignoring federal law for a very long time now, without consequence, so there might as well not be that law if you&#x27;re not going to actually enforce it.

This was a month ago (July 14th).

I hope this means it can be purchased online and mailed easily. Right now municipalities have taken the opportunity to tax it overzealously, and we could use some competition on that front.

Proposed bills usually go nowhere, so are usually off topic for HN.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=true&amp;query=by%3Adang%20bills%20propos&amp;sort=byDate&amp;type=comment" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hn.algolia.com&#x2F;?dateRange=all&amp;page=0&amp;prefix=true&amp;que...</a>

Why make things so complicated (so they fail)?<p>Just pass a bill removing it from the Schedule 1 list! It&#x27;s absolutely illogical for it to be on that list.

Definitely appreciate that this seems to be heading in the right direction.<p>&gt; limited retail sales transactions at the state level to 10 ounces of cannabis at a time<p>What&#x27;s the intent of a rule like that? Prevent one 21 year old from buying a pound for his under-21 friends? I feel like alcohol has proven that this is pretty futile. Is there some other point?

I&#x27;m surprised this is just hitting HN now since it happened last month.<p>But I look forward to being able to use credit cards with services like Sava. The last time I used a delivery service they could take cash or sketchy apps which link to your debit card.

The elephant in the room is named Biden. Even if this gets past the senate, is there any reason to think that the president would sign it? The bill sure isn&#x27;t veto-proof.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.marijuanamoment.net&#x2F;biden-remains-opposed-to-marijuana-legalization-white-house-says-minutes-after-senators-unveil-new-bill&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.marijuanamoment.net&#x2F;biden-remains-opposed-to-mar...</a>

Seems strange to me that a purportedly high-integrity journalistic organization would refer to it as ‘weed’ in the headline. Is ‘cannabis’ not click-baity enough for Reuters?

Not even controversial...

Hmm, did the party just do something incredibly unpopular recently or something?...

Why not leave this to the states to decide?

&gt;The draft set the minimum age required to buy cannabis at 21<p>21?<p>Haven&#x27;t we as a society progressed past this pernicious discrimination!