Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has a plan to do what no politician has done before: reverse decades of failed drug policy that has disproportionately impacted communities of color. With the Marijuana Justice Act (MJA), introduced on Aug. 1, Booker seeks to end the federal prohibition of marijuana, expunge federal marijuana convictions and penalize states with racially-disparate arrest or incarceration rates for marijuana-related crimes.
The bill is ambitious and there is a palpable sense of excitement (or disgust, depending on what side you’re on) as it’s being heralded as the most comprehensive marijuana bill to date, and yet…
Federal marijuana bills like this tend to be doomed to a short life and a certain death. Re: the Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol Act (HR-1841), a bill introduced by Colorado’s own dear Rep. Jared Polis in March of this year.
HR-1841 was announced with some fanfare and also a lot of skepticism about its potential. In the four months since, it has gained 15 co-sponsors and been referred to the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Conservation and Forestry, where it will likely live out its numbered days in peace and quiet.
Given the Republican-controlled Senate and decidedly anti-marijuana executive branch, it is likely that Booker’s bill has the same unfavorable destiny. While the MJA may not defy it’s fate, there is something different about this bill, something fresh, something only the social media maestro Booker can provide — a real conversation.
For decades, conversations challenging notions of prohibition have languished inside the marble halls of Capitol Hill, a place that has learned how to relegate such discourse to the fringe, if not to squash it all together.
A favorite example dates back to just last year when Senate Democrats arranged for a literal sit-in in hopes of inspiring a debate about gun control. The Republican-controlled Senate, led by Paul Ryan, directed the live-feed cameras to turn away from the protest and then called for a recess — an automatic signal for the cameras to be turned off. Undeterred, the Democratic Senators turned on their cellphone cameras instead. The sit-in quickly garnered political and public attention and inspired a conversation among and betwixt both groups.
Booker is already a pro when it comes to leveraging social media to his political ends, but saddling the introduction of the MJA with a live announcement on Facebook is a modern day coup d’etat. No, he isn’t overthrowing the government, but he is launching an aggressive offensive effort to circumnavigate political censorship of his bill, and it’s all in the name of reparative justice.
Trusting in the distributive power of Facebook Live, Booker took to the social media streets to make it clear this wasn’t just a bill about decriminalizing marijuana, but one aimed at undoing the harms that the nation’s decade-long war on drugs has inflicted on poor and minority communities.
Of course, he mentioned all the relevant statistics. Since the 1980s, the federal prison population has gone up 800 percent, costing billions (and billions) of taxpayer dollars. There is no difference between marijuana consumption rates between blacks and whites in our country, but black people are arrested four times as often. For each arrest there are 40,000 collateral consequences that wreak havoc in poor and minority communities.
Just as important, he appealed to American values and hearts, opening his talk with a patriotic call for “liberty and justice for all,” and then calling out the “rank hypocrisy” of politicians and frat boys who openly joke about marijuana consumption when this is no laughing matter.
The Facebook announcement feels a bit rebellious, but it’s also a wise political gesture — a way to spark debate and fan the flame, to bring the issues of federal decriminalization directly to the people of the democracy, even if it’s unlikely to break through to the Senate floor.
Yes, many political issues have launched from the annals of Facebook, finding a life of their own in direct appeal to and participation of the people. But, there is a unique compatibility in the combination of marijuana and social media, as both have served as major agents of change in the survival of democracy in the modern age.
Both legal marijuana and the internet came about on the wings of the people. Cannabis was legalized one vote at a time and the internet became what it is through the contributions of individuals around the world dedicated to creating a free and open platform for the exchange of information and ideas.
Together, these two have the potential to dethrone the long seated and power heavy establishment of the war on drugs. The Marijuana Justice Act may be a long shot, but it’s a conversation Congress has to have — one about federalism and about consistency, but also about liberty and justice for all.
