The vote was fueled by demands for criminal justice reform following high-profile police killings of Black Americans earlier this year.
The House on Friday passed a landmark bill that would remove federal penalties on marijuana and erase cannabis-related criminal records.
The bill passed by a vote of 228-164, with several Republicans on board. While the MORE Act is not expected to come up in the Senate this year, and likely won’t in the next session of Congress either, its passage nevertheless marks a monumental step in marijuana policy.
“We’ve been patient for years on this,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), one of the co-founders of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. “My perspective was … that this Congress should not adjourn without addressing cannabis legalization, because it has such a profound effect on especially Black Americans [and] other people of color.”
Friday’s vote reflects the shift in American and global views on marijuana over the past decade: Polls show support for legalization has increased 20 percentage points, to 68 percent, since Colorado and Washington state legalized weed in 2012. One in 3 Americans now lives in a state where marijuana is legal for adults to use. Red states including Mississippi and South Dakota voted to allow medical or recreational marijuana on Election Day. The United Nations voted earlier this week to loosen treaty restrictions on marijuana.
The bill’s passage also sets a foundation for future marijuana legalization policy: one designed to address criminal justice reform and racial inequality. There were about 663,000 marijuana-related arrests in the U.S. in 2018 — about 43 percent of all drug arrests. An ACLU study in April found that Black people are almost four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people, even though both groups are equally likely to use marijuana.
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The House passage of the MORE Act is historic. It’s the first time either chamber of Congress has voted to dramatically change federal marijuana laws in 50+ years.
But it has no chance in the Senate. Here’s what to know, from @natsfert 👇https://t.co/XVtOVbqYUg
— POLITICO (@politico) December 4, 2020
This is what our elected representatives are working on — a useless effort that will die in the senate.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to burn this country down on his way out.
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