I was pleased to see that the House passed a bill to decriminalize marijuana nation-wide:
The House voted Friday on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, which decriminalizes cannabis and clears the way to erase nonviolent federal marijuana convictions. The Senate is unlikely to approve the bill.
The MORE Act also creates pathways for ownership opportunities in the emerging industry, allows veterans to obtain medical cannabis recommendations from Veteran Affairs doctors, and establishes funding sources to reinvest in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.
Friday’s vote was the first time a full chamber of Congress has taken up the issue of federally decriminalizing cannabis. Of the vote count, 222 Democrats were in favor of passing the MORE Act and six were against it. Five Republicans voted in favor of it and 158 voted against passing it. [NBC News]
But beyond the obvious benefits to our penal system, it’s useful to think of the context.
The Democratic-controlled House passed this bill.
In all likelihood, the Republican-controlled Senate will not. They may not even consider it.
And the two Democrats in Georgia running for those two Senate seats being defended by the Republicans can use that latter potential fact in their campaigns. They can point at the lack of action of which I hypothesize, and say, Hey, if we were seated in that Senate for the next session, the House could pass that bill again and the Democrats could finish the deal.
This would have impact on a Black community ravaged by heavy enforcement of the drug laws, and in the political independents who happen to favor marijuana legalization. Runoff elections are notorious for being lightly attended, and this may help with attendance.
So there may be more going on here than meets the eye.
