2023-04-14 14:19:24 ET
Speaking at a panel discussion at Tufts University, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), who has long championed the federal legalization of cannabis, called marijuana a “dangerous” drug that requires further research.
“This is a drug, and I think it’s a dangerous drug. I really do,” said Booker, who co-sponsored the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act with several other Senate colleagues to legalize cannabis at the federal level last year.
“If you have a child, or if you are younger than 25, and you’re drinking or smoking pot, you are damaging your brain in ways that will severely affect your mental health, the wellbeing of your brain,” Marijuana Moment quoted Booker as saying on Monday.
He also lamented that marijuana legalization had not met equity goals. “What is really frustrating to me is, I thought that legalizing marijuana would have a democratizing force on our country.”
“We’re not seeing the kind of expungements with people who are using marijuana now legally. … If you’re Black in America, you are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana than somebody that’s white.”
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Curaleaf ( OTCPK:CURLF ) is among notable underperformers in the cannabis space on Friday after the company’s business operations in New Jersey suffered a blow after a regulator in that state declined to renew its annual license.
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Cory Booker identifies marijuana as a ‘dangerous drug’