US Senate hearing on "Decriminalizing Cannabis at the Federal Level: Necessary Steps to Address Past Harms"

The quoted portion of the title of this post is the title of this hearing scheduled for tomorrow afternoon by the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism of the US Senate Judiciary Committee.  Based on the topic alone, this hearing seemed worth checking out.  But the folks at Marijuana Moment already have the list of planned witnesses, and now I am even more eager to have an eye on this event.  Here are the details (with links from the original):

Senators on a key Judiciary subcommittee are set to hold a hearing on marijuana reform on Tuesday — and the witnesses include former federal cannabis prisoner Weldon Angelos and anti-marijuana proselytizer Alex Berenson.

The Judiciary Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism, chaired by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), has five witnesses scheduled to testify, according to a list obtained by Marijuana Moment.  The list has not been formally announced by the panel yet, and representatives of the chair and ranking member did not immediately respond to emails from Marijuana Moment.

Here’s the list of witnesses for the hearing, titled “Decriminalizing Cannabis at the Federal Level: Necessary Steps to Address Past Harms.”

MAJORITY WITNESSES:

Malik Burnett, a pro-legalization physician who formerly worked for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) and previously testified in favor of reform before the U.S. House of Representatives. He currently serves as the medical director of harm reduction services at the Maryland Department of Health.

Weldon Angelos, a former federal marijuana prisoner who received a presidential pardon under the Trump administration and has continued to push for clemency for other people with federal cannabis convictions through his organization The Weldon Project.

Edward Jackson, chief of police at the Annapolis Police Department and a speaker at the pro-reform group Law Enforcement Action Partnership (LEAP).

MINORITY WITNESSES:

Steve Cook, former federal prosecutor who previously served as president of the National Association of Assistant United States Attorneys. Known as a drug warrior who supports taking a carceral approach in criminal justice, Cook was appointed by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to work in DOJ as associate deputy attorney general and led a marijuana review panel for the department ahead of the Trump administration’s rescission of Obama-era cannabis enforcement memos.

Alex Berenson, former New York Times reporter who has faced ample criticism over his questionable research linking marijuana use to serious mental illness and violent crime, and who was at one point banned from Twitter for claims he made about COVID-19 vaccines.

The choice of witnesses offers a preview of the kind of debate that the majority and minority will take up at the hearing.  And the fact that Berenson was picked by Senate Republicans to go before the panel signals that there will be diametrically opposed perspectives represented at the meeting.  More specifically, it hints that there will be drama, as Berenson is not a person who’s known for subtlety and has became notorious on social media for offering contrarian takes on current events, particularly as they concern marijuana and COVID.

I share the view that having Alex Berenson as one of the witnesses here can and will add drama to this hearing, though I think all of the scheduled witnesses could be described as "headliners."  I am hopeful we will get some written statements from these witnesses before the actual hearing, and it will be interesting to see how both questions and answered are presented at the live event.  Interesting times.