Senate Majority Leader Schumer Wishes ‘Happy 420’ & Vows to ‘Work Like Hell’ For Legalization

​On April 20th, Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York, was the keynote speaker at a special 4-20 event inside the Capitol Building. At that meeting, he wished cannabis advocates a “Happy 420” and promised he will “work like hell” to advance reform, adding the obvious: “Congress is behind the rest of the country on this issue.”

Schumer also announced his plan to refile his comprehensive federal legalization bill this session, as well as continuing to work a more conservative cannabis legislation package.

With Republicans in control of the House, getting cannabis measures passed could be difficult, but Schumer hopes there will be “even more Democratic support than what we had last year.”

Schumer acknowledged his disappointment that SAFE banking was not able to get passed during the last Congress session, saying, “we came close,” but “we ran into opposition in the last minute.”

He said he and other cannabis supporting lawmakers would continue to “work in a bipartisan way” to get the job done.

Schumer told the 420 gathering, “Until we reach our goal, I promise to be in your corner and work like hell bringing federal cannabis policy into the 21st century,” and, “We will need you, as we always do, to reach out to members of both parties, in both chambers, especially Republican, so we can make progress on cannabis reform.”
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Also in attendance at the April 20th National Cannabis Policy Summit were the co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus: Democratic Representative from Oregon Earl Blumenauer, Democratic Representative from California Barbara Lee, Republican Representative from Ohio Dave Joyce, and Republican Representative from Florida Brian Mast.

Representative Joyce spoke on his newly refiled bill, the PREPARE Act, which stands for Post-Prohibition Adult-Use Regulated Environment, which is to prepare the federal government for marijuana legalization, ultimately designed to work towards a regulatory system similar to how alcohol is regulated.

Representative Lee said she is “hard at work in ensuring all players in the cannabis space, both large and small businesses, have access to capital.” Lee also acknowledged that the “public opinion has drastically shifted in support of cannabis legislation,” and noted that “38 states and four territories have now legalized medicinal or adult use cannabis.”

In addition to the Schumer and the co-chairs of the caucus, other legislature supporters were there such as Democratic Senator John Hickenlooper of Colorado and Republican Representative from South Carolina Nancy Mace.

Senator Hickenlooper spoke about the need for working on more conservative cannabis legislation packages, saying that unfortunately they are “really not close” to having enough support to pass full legalization through Congress. So, he said starting with more incremental reform “allows us to get some momentum going and to really get into more meaningful discussions.”

(Watch Schumer’s speech at the National Cannabis Policy Summit Congressional Forum here.)

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