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WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker has introduced the Marijuana Justice Act, which would eliminate the federal ban on marijuana. Fellow U.S. senators and 2020 Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris are co-sponsors.

Harris is the lead Senate sponsor of House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler’s Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, with Booker and Warren as co-sponsors, which would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and leave it to the states to decide whether to legalize cannabis.

And Sanders on Thursday released his own marijuana plan, promising to have his attorney general declassify marijuana as a controlled substance.

As for Vice President Joe Biden, he supports reclassifying marijuana from its current level as a Schedule 1 drug to Schedule 2, like cocaine, in order to expand research into the drug. He also would decriminalize marijuana use and expunge previous convictions for using cannabis, support medical marijuana and let states decide whether to legalize the drug for recreational use.

“Leading scientists and researchers still have serious questions regarding the health impacts of cannabis so Vice President Biden believes that we need to further study this issue before reconsidering its status,” campaign spokesman Michael Gwin told NJ Cannabis Insider.

But Justin Strekal, political director for NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said Biden’s call for rescheduling rather than legalizing marijuana could upset the current détente in which the federal government does not enforce its cannabis ban in states that have legalized it.

“Joe Biden is the worst candidate running for president when it comes to marijuana policy and anyone who holds reform as a very important or somewhat important issue should find another candidate in the Democratic field,” Strekal told NJ Cannabis Insider.

The reason? Rescheduling cannabis would remind “prosecutors and other law enforcement officials that every single marijuana marketplace is out of comport with federal law,” Strekal said. “If you take action to change the law by making it schedule 2, every single U.S. attorney would be honor-bound, duty-bound to enforce the new law.”

Strekal also pointed out that arrests for marijuana possession spiked following passage of the 1994 crime bill, which Biden played a major role in enacting, as it encouraged states to pass their own tough anti-crime measures that led to incarcerating more and more people, disproportionately black, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s law school.

Booker said marijuana could be an important issue during the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination. The latest Gallup poll said Americans support legalizing the drug, 66 percent to 33 percent. Democrats support legalization by 76 percent to 23 percent.

“This is what I mean when I say distinctions are important,” Booker said during an appearance at the National Press Club. “I think that if you are somebody that this is a key issue for you, you should be lining up behind the person who has been fighting on this issue and leading on this issue.”

This story first appeared in NJ Cannabis Insider.

Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JDSalant or on Facebook. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.

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