Marijuanas legalized

The bill faces stiff headwinds in the Senate, where it would require 60 votes to pass. A similar measure the House passed in 2020 failed in the upper ...

The MORE ACT said legalizing cannabis is an issue of economic growth, social equity, racial justice, and states' rights. Sponsored by House Judiciary Chairman ...

"Ending the war on drugs also means adopting progressive and noncriminal regulatory strategies rather than relying on law enforcement." The bill sets a new path forward and would begin to correct some of the injustices of the last 50 years." Meanwhile, fewer than one-fifth of cannabis business owners identify as minorities and only 4 percent are black. The costs of enforcing cannabis-prohibition laws costs taxpayers approximately $3.6 billion a year, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and results in more than 600,000 arrests annually. In 2020, legal cannabis sales totaled $20 billion, and are projected to double by 2025. The House passed a similar bill in 2020, but did not garner support in a Republican controlled Senate.

Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states.

It would also make Small Business Administration loans and services available to cannabis businesses while setting standards for them. The Republicans voting for the measure were Representatives Matt Gaetz and Brian Mast of Florida and Tom McClintock of California. But other Republicans have signed on to a similar bill by Representative Nancy Mace, Republican of South Carolina. (Two Democrats, Representatives Henry Cuellar of Texas and Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, voted against the legislation on Friday.) The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which passed 220-204, is unlikely to secure 60 votes to pass the Senate, despite the backing of the majority leader, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. But supporters of marijuana decriminalization — even some Republicans who voted against the Democratic legislation — said on Friday that the vote was a necessary step toward building consensus on something that can become law.

The House passed legislation on Friday to legalize marijuana nationwide and eliminate the longstanding criminal penalties for anyone who distributes or ...

So far, nine Senate Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors to Sen. Jeff Merkley’s (D-Ore.) companion bill in the upper chamber for more narrow marijuana legalization. “To responsibly end prohibition, the federal government must simultaneously issue a regulatory framework that works in conjunction with states’ specifics needs. Democrats further framed the measure as a way to reverse the disproportionate impact of criminalizing marijuana on racial minorities. House Democrats previously passed a bill to legalize marijuana in December 2020. Theirs is eight after three years, and we all know that you’re going to guarantee illicit markets if you make taxes too high.” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S. C.) called for bringing the legislation on the House floor on Friday closer to her own marijuana legalization bill, which would limit marijuana use to people above the age of 21 and establish a lower sales tax that would not rise for ten years. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), a Congressional Cannabis Caucus co-chair, wrote in an op-ed for Marijuana Moment, a publication that focuses on marijuana policy, that he would not support the bill on Friday either. Legalizing drugs. At least 37 states, four territories and the District of Columbia allow the use of marijuana for medical use, according to the National Conference on State Legislatures. About half that number – 18 states, two territories and the nation’s capital – allow it for non-medical use. Schumer may not have enough support within his own Democratic caucus. Proponents argued that it’s past time for the federal government to catch up to the majority of states that have legalized marijuana to at least some extent. But it’s not clear a bill to broadly legalize marijuana could clear the necessary 60 votes to advance in the Senate.