Having been a prosecutor for 25 years and a public
defender before that, when I first got to Congress
, I realized that the majority of the convictions that
were taking place were done at the state level?
And uh, we weren't addressing that in any of
the legislation that we put forward so far. Just
to give you an idea in 2019, there's 545,000
cannabis cases that were charged at state level yet.
And the federal level, there was 5000 drug cases
as a whole that the FBI charged, not just
cannabis. So give an idea that the numbers that
are out there in states that either have bad records
, who are the records not being fully automated.
So we want to make it easier for folks to
be able to have a one stop shop to go
in, be able to uh, fill out the
paperwork that's necessary and receive an expungement. You know
, in days of old to it has been cost
prohibitive either public defenders and legal aid societies are too
busy to do it and then want to get involved
and attorneys cost money. So it's cost prohibitive for
folks to do that. So again, we just
wanted to make it available to folks so they can
get it done so they can go on with their
lives and lead productive solid life's and get back to
being able to get away from the stigmatization that took
place, having a prior conviction. Now this isn't
the first time you've reached across the aisle to team
up with democrats on cannabis bills, but Representative Ocasio
Cortez has become a symbol of the progressive left.
What has the response been like to your collaboration?
Well, one of the things that in talking to
alexandria was that again, having been a prosecutor,
uh, and I understood what she was saying,
that unfortunately a lot of the war on drugs went
back to people of color. And so I knew
when we started the war on drugs back in the
eighties, uh, that everything, all the funding
was built on stats and the stats would drive from
cops going out and, you know, the easy
ones were sitting in the area of a bar,
wait for folks to come out and see the light
go on in the car and the seat get passed
around and then all of a sudden you gotta for
for for for the price of one and making those
arrests and it would build up their stats. But
what was it doing for the war on drugs?
And I'm telling you nothing. So it took a
long time for me to convince the local cops that
this wasn't the program. I wasn't taking those cases
and uh, you know, you're better off taking
and dumping whatever cannabis that they had and saying,
where'd you get this? We'll let you go and
then as you start to get the same names consistently
, a lot of the people who are dealers weren't
just dealing cannabis and those are the people that we
should be focusing on in the war on drugs.
And so, but a lot of those people were
innocent byproducts and not necessarily innocent, but byproducts of
the war on drugs. And that's why I thought
when Alexandra and I were talking through ways to be
helpful, that the small incremental change like this would
be helpful because you look at the 47 states that
have cannabis in some way, shape or form right
now. It's the the mandates are put on by
the state. So the regulations all say that they
can't have anybody who has a record. So the
poor people who were beat up by the war on
drugs can't even get a job and cannabis growing because
these prior uh, convictions. So our focus was
to right those wrongs and help uh folks of all
colors, be able to get back into the workplace
and be able to enjoy the american dream and the
economic freedom that comes with it. Now, I
want to really quickly pull out our crystal balls here
, given the latest defeat of safe banking and as
you are hinting at there, the lack of support
for these broader, wide ranging bills like the cannabis
administration opportunity act more act, When do you think
we will see broader cannabis reform and what might that
look like? You know, this is a town
that moves at a glacial pace on any issue.
And again, we don't do big well, but
you know, the one thing I have seen some
rapid movement on is the idea that cannabis can get
at least some form of uh legalization can happen.
But again, it has to happen in a manageable
slice. And so that first off, I think
, is to be able to get states to be
able to do the things that are necessary so they
can grow the way the state sees fit A federal
one size fits all doesn't work. You know,
the state wants it fine if they want it medically
only fine if they want to distribute it. We
wanted my bill that I put out earlier this year
is to get created like you do alcohol in Ohio
, the state runs the alcohol system in new york
or California florida. It's pretty wide open. You
have many more liquor stores and in its fluctuation in
pricing, that's fine. But the states make those
calls, not the federal government, but we should
at least get out of their way and give them
the parameters in which they can play the game.
And if we do get involved, get involved in
the things that are necessary. So universities can do
the research to make sure it truly is medically effective
to find out those states where it's fully legal,
at what point are people's motor skills compromised. We
don't have the research and we don't have those understandings
now. So again, making having the hearings that
are necessary to one define the issues and then to
provide solutions or potential solutions and then vote on those
things. So the american public understands exactly what we're
trying to get accomplished here. I think we'll get
us moving in the right direction and I'm hoping that
comes sometime uh soon. But I also think the
Cleveland browns are going to win the NFL Super Bowl
one day. So, uh, I think we'll
win, we'll get there eventually. But I probably
23 24. But the one thing that since those
days when we first started with Boehner and he is
telling us no. Now all of a sudden we're
in a position where the safe act gets knocked out
by the democratic leadership in the Senate and that doesn't
make a hell of a lot of sense either.
It's not good for our country. Okay, thanks
. There are two Cheddars, cannabis reporter Chloe Aiello
along with Ohio congressman David Joyce