Voting 228 to 164 Dec. 4, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement [MORE] Act, decriminalizing cannabis, authorizing the 1970 Controlled Substances Act to remove marijuana from the federal drug registry. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is not expected to take up the bill in the lame-duck session. Long overdue, the House stepped up passing MORE, sponsored by 73-year-old Rep. Jerold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and 56-year-old former Sen. and now Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. A Nov. 9 Gallup Poll shows that 68% of U.S. citizens support legalizing marijuana up for 60% in 2016. Before McConnell’s tossed out at Senate Majority Leader Jan. 5, 2021 with two pivotal runoff Senate elections in Georgia, he should act swiftly to send 74-year-old President Donald Trump the historic legislation before his leaves office Jan. 20, 2021.
Under the 1970 Federal Controlled Substances Act and the federal drug registry, marijuana is listed with heroin as banned narcotic, something that’s sent generations of users and dealers to prison at great cost to families, taxpayers and society. Nadler and Harrris’s bill does what 35 states have already done with medical marijuana laws and 15 states with recreational use laws. “It really is a watershed moment,” said Trulieve [TCNFF] CEO Kim Rivers, a Florida-based publicly-traded medical marijuana company. “Now, of course, the devil is in the details and we’ll start to talk about what [legalization] means, but to even have the conversation around the actual policy is in and of itself a huge step,” Rivers said, not knowing what happens to the legislation in the Senate. Harris and Nadler’s bill could add about $9 billion in market capitalization to the marijuana industry.
All the past government anti-marijuana propaganda stemmed from the 1935 film “Reefer Madness,” depicting marijuana as a gateway drug to harder drug abuse. California was the first state to have the courage to pass Prop 215 Nov. 9, 1996, legalizing marijuana for medial use, essentially requiring a physicians prescriptions to be filled by State-regulated, green-cross marijuana pharmacies. Opponents to 215 spent millions battling logic and common sense that weed was not a dangerous drug as portrayed by government propaganda in “Reefer Madness.” Christian and Mormon groups spent millions to defeat Prop 215 but in the end lost to the wisdom of the electorate. Now, 25 years later, California, above any other states, knows that its compassionate and recreational use laws keep citizens out of prison. No one had more marijuana convicted felons than California.
However scientists debate the pros and cons of marijuana use, California has a 25-year track record, knowing at the very least, that accessibility to legal marijuana has not corrupted the youth or hurt society. More evidence exists that instead of dealing with chronic pain by prescription opioids and other addicting drugs, marijuana takes the edge off many chronic pain conditions. Getting through the “Reefer Madness” propaganda wasn’t easy for Californians but they got it right in 1996 and the Recreational Marijuana Act Nov. 9, 2016, giving other states the blueprint for passing medical and recreational marijuana laws. Nadler and Harris finally remove marijuana from the federal drug registry, no longer making its use and distribution illegal. Marijuana businesses, since California passed the first compassionate use act in 1996, have been forced to circumvent the federal banking system.
Medical and recreational marijuana laws have been a multibillion dollar source of tax revenue for cash-strapped states facing budget deficits from periodic recessions, like the one faced in 2020. Giving states an extra stream of tax revenue offers obvious benefits. But by far the biggest windfall is keeping countless numbers of marijuana users and sellers out of prison, by far the biggest cost savings to states. Costing states about $110,000 a year per prisoner, the cost to state treasuries around the country have been astronomical, not to mention the price paid by taking able-bodied workers out of the labor pool. Nadler and Harris should be commended for following up with a change to the federal drug registry, removing marijuana, once and for all, as a regulated, controlled substance. Allowing medical and recreational businesses to utilize the federal banking system should expand the industry.
McConnell’s narrow-mindedness about decrimalizing marijuana could be his undoing on Jan. 5, when Georgia voters pick Republicans or Democrats for the U.S. Senate. McConnell’s reluctance to act swiftly on Nadler and Harris’s bill could push Georgia to elect two Democrats. Whatever the past arguments against legalizing cannabis, it’s far outweighed by the noted medical benefits, but, more importantly, keeping marijuana users out of prison. When conservative Republican Matt Gaetz (R-Fl.) wholeheartedly backed the MORE Act, you know it’s time for McConnell to advance the legislation in the Senate for debate and vote in the lame-duck session. If voters see McConnell kick the can down the road, it could mean the end of GOP control of the U.S. Senate. Whether Democrat or Republican, the consensus exists to decrimrinalize marijuana around the country.
