Left-leaning policy wonks call it the biggest political layup of our time. It enjoys rare bipartisan support in a time of rancorous political division. It would lower rates of incarceration among people of color and chip away at the prison industrial complex.
So why has cannabis not yet been legalized, or at least decriminalized, on the federal level?
Congress is poised to tackle the issue in December when it votes on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019, aka the MORE Act. If passed, the decriminalization bill would impose sweeping changes to the ways weed functions in society, and offer a sign of retreat in the U.S. government’s decades-long war on drugs.
Even as Americans grow more divided politically, cannabis continues to gain ground with every…
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act of 2019 is a bill sponsored by former Senator and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris that would decriminalize weed by removing it from the government’s list of controlled substances
The legislation aims to establish a host of reforms that could stimulate a massive overhaul of outdated laws affecting criminal sentencing, sales tax collection, and cannabis’s broader economic utility.
Here’s a high altitude glance at what the MORE Act hopes to accomplish:
- Removal of federal criminal penalties on cannabis, by establishing “a process to expunge convictions and conduct sentencing review hearings related to federal cannabis offenses.”
- Impose a 5% federal tax on all weed sales and deposit those funds into a trust fund to support “various programs and services for individuals and businesses in communities impacted by the war on drugs.”
- Make Small Business Administration loans available to cannabis-related businesses.
- Prohibit denial of federal benefits “on the basis of certain cannabis-related conduct or convictions.”
- Prohibit denial of federal benefits to immigrants on basis of cannabis-related offenses.
The difference between decriminalization and legalization
While advocates of cannabis policy-reform are excited for the MORE Act’s economic and social potential, it’s important to highlight some distinctions between decriminalization and outright legalization.
As the Center for American Progress lays out:
Decriminalization means that the possession of small amounts of marijuana will trigger lower or no criminal penalties, although fines and citations may still be levied. In New York, for example, the possession of a small amount of marijuana for recreational use will not lead to an arrest, but the state criminalizes marijuana consumption in public view.11 Generally, the possession of larger amounts and trafficking of marijuana remain criminally illegal under this system. Many jurisdictions have chosen to decriminalize marijuana in order to prioritize higher-level crimes and cut down on justice-related costs.
How would decriminalization affect the criminal justice system?
Since 1970, cannabis has been classified as a Schedule 1 drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the same legal classification as drugs like cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. The classification has contributed to soaring incarceration rates in the United States, particularly among Black and latino men.
The Marijuana Policy Project provides a great…
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