Transcript for Senators announce bill to protect states' legalization of marijuana

Our federal marijuana laws are outdated and her brokered the way I see yet we have two choices we can either sit on the sidelines. And we can be bemoaned the old fashioned policies or we can roll up our sleeves get to work and propose a solution. States like Massachusetts and Colorado have done the work. We have legalized marijuana in fact 46 states the District of Columbia two territories and a number of tribes. Have legalized marijuana in some form. They've taken action and the law on their books should be protected. So that's why today we are introducing the State's. A bipartisan. Legislation that would let states territories and tribes. Decide for themselves how to regulate marijuana. Without federal interference. We're taking action to protect the millions of Americans who access medical marijuana under state law. We're taking action to protect businesses. That need access to basic banking services. And we're taking action to address the systematic discrimination. In our criminal justice system. That has ruined the lives of African Americans for generations. For something as small as a joint of marijuana. Reforming our nation's marijuana policies his hard work we get that but we believe that we work together we can get this done. I am proud to be in its fight and I am proud to have a partner like Cory Gardner. Senator art season are warned and this has been a great partnership convert beginning a number of our colleagues. Coming together to find the solution on what is a very significant state federal conflict. Our founders intended the states to be laboratories of democracy. And to many states right now find themselves deep in the heart of that laboratory. But it's created significant conflict between state law federal law and how do we move forward. And as that the president said the conversation to me we can't go backwards we can only go forwards it's not going back to catch it's not going back into the bottle as the old saying goes. I opposed the legalization of marijuana when Colorado chose to do this at several years back. But if the election were held today oddly Colorado voters would vote by an even greater margin to move forward with legalization. That we have a number of states now have this conflict that simply must be addressed because there's several things that we need to achieve number one. At this is a chance for us to express that federalism works to take an idea that the states have led whip and provide a solution that allows them to continue to lead number two. This is a public it pops hypocrisy. The city of Denver the state of Colorado can collect taxes as that Massachusetts of business this can collect taxes. They can take it to the bank but if you're in the business if you work for the business you can't get a bank loan or set up a bank account because of the concern over the conflict between. The state and federal law we need to fix this public hypocrisy the third thing. This is a public safety issue. Billions of dollars in cash floating around Colorado and other states that at be legalized industry. They can't bank it are forced to. Figure out how Wear what to do with hundreds of millions of dollars billions of dollars in cash it's time that we take this industry out of the shadows. Bring these dollars out of the shadows. And make sure that we hold people accountable before an industry that states are moving forward with regardless of the pace of business in Washington DC. As so again this is an opportunity to work the bipartisan coalition members in the house and the senate. To provide a federalism based solution a solution that analysts and and commentators on the left and the right have said is beautiful in its simplicity.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.