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For the first time in its history, the U.S. Congress approved a bill to federally end marijuana prohibition. The House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act earlier today in a historic 228-164 vote.
The MORE Act would not explicitly legalize marijuana nationally, but it would remove cannabis from the list of scheduled substances—where it is currently classified with heroin as a Schedule I drug—under the Controlled Substances Act. Essentially, it would decriminalize marijuana federally and allow states to set their own rules; states that wish to ban marijuana would be able to do so, but pot would be legal by default everywhere else. The Act includes social justice provisions, such as the creation of a trust fund filled with revenue from taxing smoking products and dedicated to mending the damages of the War on Drugs. It would automatically expunge past convictions for certain cannabis offenses and create job and health programs benefiting communities that were most impacted by prohibition, in particular communities of color. The MORE Act is sponsored in the Senate by Vice President-elect Kamala Harris
The vote in the House was divided clearly along party lines. 222 Democrats voted in favor and six voted against it, while 158 Republicans voted no and five voted in favor of the MORE Act. In the end, 39 representatives, 34 of which were Republicans, chose to abstain.
Besides Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), the sole Republican co-sponsor of the bill, the Republican party acted almost in unison to oppose ending the War on Drugs, which bodes poorly for the bill in the Republican-controlled Senate. For months, the MORE Act served as a lightning rod of criticism for Republican lawmakers for months who accuse Democrats of prioritizing legal weed over COVID relief—while pretending to ignore the fact that Democrats passed a COVID relief bill in May, which has been repeatedly blocked by the Republican Senate. Once again, it seems inevitable that Sen. Mitch McConnell will go out of his way to kill the MORE Act on arrival in the Senate, meaning that Americans will not get to benefit from it just yet.
Victory for Reform
The true value of today’s landslide victory for marijuana reform is in the symbol it represents for the future. Although the 116th U.S. Congress is too gridlocked to accomplish any significant progress due to the Republican chokehold on the Senate, the 117th U.S. Congress might. Today’s victory sends a very strong message: The end of marijuana prohibition is in sight; the taboo of legal marijuana has been lifted; and Democrats can get it done.
If the overwhelming success of marijuana measures on the ballot this November and the landslide victory of the MORE Act in the House prove anything, it is that the American people are on the side of marijuana. Only a very short majority of Republicans in the Senate still stands between the American people and the end of the War on Drugs. As the Georgia runoff elections approach, and as President-elect Joe Biden prepares to settle in the White House, America has the option to overturn the Republican Senate majority next month.
