*By Jacqueline Corba*
Voters are effectively pressuring lawmakers on both sides of the aisle to publicly support the easing cannabis laws, said the deputy director of the National Organization for Marijuana Laws.
In an interview Tuesday with Cheddar, the deputy director, Paul Armentano said politicians were realizing that marijuana enjoyed greater popularity than they did.
"With the midterm elections approaching, more and more members of Congress from both parties now acknowledge that advocating for marijuana policy reform is not a political liability, rather its a political opportunity," said Armentano.
Last Friday ー on 4/20, of all days ー Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the minority leader, introduced a bill to decriminalize weed. A few days earlier, the majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, had introduced a bill to remove hemp from the list of controlled substances.
Senators Kamala Harris (D-CA) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) have called on Attorney General Jeff Sessions to stop using federal anti-drug laws to block medical marijuana research. And even President Trump changed his tune last week when he promised Sen. Cory Gardner, a Colorado Republican, he would support legal protections in states where marijuana is legal.
A majority of Americans ー 60 percent, according to a Pew Research Center poll ー said they support marijuana legalization.
For full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-the-momentum-driving-politicians-to-back-cannabis).
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that oversees student visas, just released new guidelines for international students, which say that if an international student is enrolled in a program that decides to go fully virtual, they must leave the county.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday launched an all-out effort to reopen schools this fall.
Camden, NJ has garnered national headlines after the city replaced its police department with a community based policing program. Cheddar's Michelle Castillo gets an inside look at this alternate type of policing.
The Trump administration has formally notified the United Nations of its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, although the pullout won’t take effect until next year.
TikTok says it will stop operations in Hong Kong after the city enacted a sweeping national security law last week.
The government on Monday identified roughly 650,000 mostly small businesses and nonprofits that received taxpayer money from a program that likely helped prevent the job market meltdown from growing worse but that also benefited some politically connected firms.
A white woman walking her dog who called the police during a videotaped dispute with a Black man in Central Park was charged Monday with filing a false report.
Stacy Abrams, author and founder of 'Fair Fight,' talks the need to expand vote-by-mail options for Americans as the concerns of voter suppression rise.
Lauren Paylor, a bartender and mixologist, most recently at Silver Lyan, a newly-opened cocktail bar in Washington, DC., talked to Cheddar about unemployment amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Supreme Court has upheld a 1991 law that bars robocalls to cellphones.
