A Historic Proposal: The US Senate Considers the Legalisation of Cannabis for the First Time

Republican senator Rand Paul has joined Democrats Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand to present a bill that would open the door to the legalisation of medicinal marijuana at the federal level.

The initiative includes the reclassification of marijuana from List 1 to List 2; on the former are those illegal drugs that are considered to be devoid of any medical value, while the latter would make it possible to use cannabis towards therapeutic aims, under the authority of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

This bill would also prevent the DEA and other federal agencies from intervening in states' medicinal marijuana laws, although Obama has not given priority to the application of federal prohibitions of cannabis in those states where it is already legal.

The bill also seeks to allow marijuana-related research to move forward: the attorney general would have to issue at least three licenses to research institutions to carry out studies on to the plant. 

A Senate adviser has indicated that the approval of this bill is necessary at a time when there are states that have already approved legalisation, even for recreational aims: Washington, Colorado and Alaska.

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With information from Vox, UPI and The Weed Blog