Washington, D.C. — Oregon’s Senior United States Senator is endorsing a vote by his House of Representatives colleagues to legalize marijuana.
The U.S. House of Representatives approved the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act, HR 3617, Friday. The measure, if it becomes federal law, would remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act, which could also removing conflict between state marijuana legalization and federal marijuana prohibition laws. The measure also could provide states with authority to establish their own cannabis laws.
Senator Wyden used twitter to write, “Ending federal cannabis prohibition is urgent business. I congratulate the House on passing this bill and I urge my Senate colleagues to support my legislation…”
Marijuana legalization advocate NORML says Friday’s vote marks the second time in more than 50 years a chamber of Congress has addressed the classification of cannabis as a federally controlled and prohibited substance and “has voted to close the widening chasm between state and federal marijuana policies.”
NORML expects the House-passed legislation to face challenges in the U.S. Senate. It says, “NORML won’t stop fighting until there isn’t a single person in this country put in handcuffs for possession of cannabis and until all 50 states in this country embrace the sensible and pragmatic policy of legalizing and regulating marijuana.”
Senator Wyden has a federal marijuana bill in the U.S. Senate he sponsored with Senators Chuck Schumer and Cory Booker that surfaced last July.
The U.S. House measure is summarized by the House as “Reported to House, Part I (03/24/2022) as the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act or the MORE Act.
This bill decriminalizes marijuana.
Specifically, it removes marijuana from the list of scheduled substances under the Controlled Substances Act and eliminates criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes, or possesses marijuana.
The bill also makes other changes, including the following:
- replaces statutory references to marijuana and marihuana with cannabis,
- requires the Bureau of Labor Statistics to regularly publish demographic data on cannabis business owners and employees,
- establishes a trust fund to support various programs and services for individuals and businesses in communities impacted by the war on drugs,
- imposes an excise tax on cannabis products produced in or imported into the United States and an occupational tax on cannabis production facilities and export warehouses,
- makes Small Business Administration loans and services available to entities that are cannabis-related legitimate businesses or service providers,
- prohibits the denial of federal public benefits to a person on the basis of certain cannabis-related conduct or convictions,
- prohibits the denial of benefits and protections under immigration laws on the basis of a cannabis-related event (e.g., conduct or a conviction),
- establishes a process to expunge convictions and conduct sentencing review hearings related to federal cannabis offenses, and
- directs the Government Accountability Office to study the societal impact of cannabis legalization.”
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