Momentum continues to grow for comprehensive marijuana policy reform as Congress prepares to vote for only second time in history to repeal federal prohibition
Members of the US House of Representatives have announced that they will hold a floor vote next week on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act. The MORE Act, or H.R. 3617, removes marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, facilitates expungement and resentencing for nonviolent federal marijuana convictions, promotes diverse participation in the regulated cannabis industry, and helps repair the racially and economically disparate harms caused by our nation’s disastrous prohibition policies.
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“Advancing this legislation to deschedule marijuana and to help those individuals and communities that have borne the brunt of America’s failed prohibition is pivotal,” said NORML’s Political Director Morgan Fox. “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.
“On behalf of cannabis consumers nationwide and the people who have been victimized and marginalized by our misguided federal marijuana laws, we thank House Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Jim Clyburn, Hakeem Jeffries, Barbara Lee, Sheila Jackson Lee, Ed Perlmutter, Nydia Velasquez, and many others for their steadfast support for comprehensive marijuana policy reform and for their efforts to bring this legislation to a vote.”
This legislation was previously approved in the House in December of 2020, but it did not receive a hearing in the Senate. Next week’s vote will mark the only the second time in more than 50 years that a chamber of Congress has revisited the classification of cannabis as a federally prohibited substance.
