- US House of Representatives to vote, for the second time in history, on a bill to federally legalise marijuana
- A hearing scheduled for Wednesday will consider possible amendments to the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act
- It could see cannabis removed from the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), as well as criminal penalties for federal offences eliminated and past offences expunged
- The bill would also establish a tax on retail cannabis sales, the revenue from which will be reinvested in communities affected by current prohibition policies
- The MORE Act previously passed the floor in December 2020 with a 228-164 vote, but was denied a hearing in the Senate
The US House of Representatives will vote this week, for the second time in history, on a bill to federally legalise marijuana.
Scheduled for Wednesday, the hearing was confirmed in a statement released by the House Rules Committee on Thursday last week, and will consider possible amendments to the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act.
Sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, the bill would remove cannabis from the list of drugs regulated by the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), while eliminating criminal penalties for federal cannabis offences and expunging past convictions.
It would also establish a tax on retail cannabis sales, with the revenue raised to be invested in communities who have been disproportionately affected by America’s stringent prohibition policies.
The bill would create a pathway for resentencing those incarcerated for cannabis offences, protect immigrants from being denied citizenship over marijuana, and prevent federal agencies from denying public benefits or security clearance due to its use.
“Advancing this legislation to de-schedule marijuana and to help those individuals and communities that have borne the brunt of America’s failed prohibition is pivotal,” said Morgan Fox, political director for the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML).
“More than two-thirds of Americans support repealing the federal prohibition of marijuana and they deserve to know where our elected officials stand on this issue.”
The MORE Act was taken to the floor for the first time in December 2020 and passed with a 228-164 vote, with only five Republicans joining Democrats in advancing the reform.
However, the legislation was ultimately denied a hearing in the then-Republican-controlled Senate.
Republican Matt Gaetz said at the time that while he felt the bill was “flawed”, the federal government “has lied to the people of this country about marijuana for a generation”.
“We have seen a generation, particularly of black and brown youth, locked up for offences that not should have not resulted in any incarceration whatsoever,” he said.
While that vote came shortly after the 2020 federal election, in which Joe Biden took over as President from Donald Trump, the latest vote comes ahead of the mid-term elections in November.
Justin Strekal, founder of the pro-legalisation committee BOWL PAC, said the upcoming vote would help Americans understand where lawmakers stood on the issue.
“For the first time in history, Americans will be able to go to polls knowing whether or not their representative voted to end prohibition or maintain the racist and senseless policy of marijuana criminalisation,” he said.
“Now is the time for lawmakers to ask themselves the question: Do I want to vote against the will of the supermajority of American voters?”
While the recreational use of marijuana is legal in 16 states and Washington DC, and is approved for medicinal purposes in 19 states, federal law has declared the use, sale or distribution of marijuana illegal since the 1930s.
As a Schedule I controlled substance listed under the CSA, marijuana is considered to have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”, according to the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), putting it in the same category as other illicit drugs such as heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ecstasy and peyote.