After Sens. Gardner and Warren introduced the legislation, advocates call it the “most significant piece of marijuana-related legislation ever”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced new legislation today that highlights the growing divisions within the Republican Party on the nation’s current patchwork of marijuana laws. The effort to allow states to decide their own marijuana policy potentially pits President Trump, who has voiced support for the state’s right to choose their own policy, against his own staunchly anti-marijuana attorney general. And it highlights the chasm between anti-marijuana GOP leaders in Congress and the growing number of rank-and-file Republicans who are demanding federal protections for their state’s burgeoning marijuana businesses.

If it passes, the STATES – Strengthening the Tenth Amendment Through Entrusting States – Act would end the federal prohibition of marijuana and formally enshrine protections for the states that have decided to legalize either recreational or medicinal marijuana. Currently, marijuana is listed as a federally controlled substance, but this bill would amend the Controlled Substances Act – basically, it would remove marijuana from the schedule of illegal drugs in states that choose to legalize. Don Murphy, conservative outreach director of the Marijuana Policy Project, called the bill the “most significant piece of marijuana-related legislation ever introduced in Congress.”

– Read the entire article at Rolling Stones.