Senate Democratic leader Schumer calls for marijuana legalization on '4/20 Day'

April 20 (UPI) -- Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, marking Tuesday as the unofficial holiday celebrating marijuana, called for the drug to be decriminalized at the federal level within the next year.

The New York Democrat spoke on the issue on the Senate floor and said he's working with Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on legislation to decriminalize the substance.

"Today is what you might call a very unofficial American holiday -- 4/20," Schumer said. "It's as appropriate a time as any to take a look at our laws that have overcriminalized the use of marijuana and put it on a par with heroine, LSD and other narcotics that bear little or no resemblance in their effects either on individuals or on society more broadly.

"The war on drugs has too often been a war on people particularly people of color."

Schumer said he hopes that by the next 4/20 -- April 20, 2022 -- there will have been efforts made to decriminalize marijuana "in a meaningful and comprehensive way."

Marijuana is fully legal in 15 states and two others are expected to follow suit. Currently, pot is medically legal and/or decriminalized in 36 states.

Virginia's General Assembly voted earlier this month to legalize recreational use and limited home growth, and New York enacted a law legalizing the substance in March.

"Working as hard as I can to legalize It this year. #420," Wyden tweeted Tuesday.