(CNN) Sen. Bernie Sanders released a comprehensive plan late Thursday afternoon to legalize marijuana, begin a process to expunge old pot-related convictions and take steps to shape the emerging legal sales industry. Sanders, a longtime proponent of marijuana legalization, would also ban tobacco companies from getting into the increasingly lucrative business, while creating a $20 billion grant program -- using tax revenue from marijuana sales -- to provide new capital to minority entrepreneurs. Decades of harsh laws and sentencing requirements have "disproportionately targeted people of color and ruined the lives of millions of Americans," Sanders said in a statement. Sanders unveiled the blueprint ahead of his appearance Saturday at the Second Step Presidential Justice Forum at Benedict College, an HBCU in South Carolina. The capital grant program will be would be administered through the Minority Business Development Agency.

Source: CNN October 24, 2019 20:15 UTC