United States: first vote in Congress to legalize cannabis

A key committee of the US Congress will hold a historic vote on a bill to end the federal ban on cannabis next Wednesday, according to by Tom Angell for Forbes.

The MORE Act for Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement aims to remove cannabis from the list of prohibited substances and erase past cannabis-related convictions. It would decriminalize cannabis at the federal level and entrench the power of each state to legalize or not.

It would also protect immigrants from being denied U.S. citizenship for cannabis-related reasons, and fund reparations for the damage caused by the war on drugs, particularly to communities of color that have been disproportionately victimized by it, via a 5% federal tax on all cannabis sales. An Office of Cannabis, attached to the Department of Justice, would be created to handle this.

The bill has 55 backers in the House of Representatives, all but one of them Democrats. A sister bill will be introduced in the Senate by Democratic Senator Kamala Harris, a 2020 presidential candidate, with no timeframe given. However, the Senate has a Republican majority, traditionally conservative on this issue.

For the time being, however, it is unlikely that this new proposal will be adopted.

Federal prohibition challenged

At the end of September, the House of Representatives passed, with strong support, a banking bill for cannabis companies. The text brought to light divisions as to how cannabis legislation should be treated. On the one hand, some believe it is essential to immediately address the harms caused by the war on drugs and equity in the cannabis industry. Others think it makes more sense to advance more limited, states' rights-focused legislation, but which may have a better chance of advancing through the Senate and ultimately to President Trump's desk.

In June 2018 support another project, the STATES Act, which would not formally decriminalize cannabis and would not include measures to ensure fairness in the cannabis industry for communities most affected by the war on drugs. It would, however, protect cannabis operations in states where it is legal from federal prosecution.