More Act

[tacman7 558]

Congress to vote to make cannabis LEGAL!!!

The most important piece of cannabis legislation since the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) made cannabis illegal in 1970 is coming up for a vote this Wednesday, Dec. 2 in the House of Representatives. It is the MORE (Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement) Act and it is important because it removes cannabis from the CSA which will end federal cannabis prohibition and turns regulation over to the states just like alcohol and tobacco.

The MORE Act does even more:

• permits physicians affiliated with the Veterans Administration for the first time to make medical cannabis recommendations to qualifying veterans who reside in legal states,
• it incentivizes states to move ahead with expungement policies that will end the stigma and lost opportunities suffered by those with past, low-level cannabis convictions,
• allows the Small Business Administration to support entrepreneurs and businesses as they seek to gain a foothold in this emerging industry.

There have been some objections raised to the MORE Act by a few cannabis aficionados as it allows states to regulate cannabis like tobacco and they feel cannabis is not tobacco and should not be regulated in the same way.

The MORE act doesn’t mandate that cannabis be treated like tobacco but it does allow states to regulate cannabis any way they like and if they want to treat it like tobacco they can.

 This is not necessarily a bad thing considering that you can get a pack of 20 tobacco cigarettes for under $10 including taxes. Also you can buy them just about everywhere including the ubiquitous convenience stores in which in 2019 there were 152,790 of which over 120,000 were operated by mom and pop and not by Circle K and 7-11.  If only cannabis were so cheaply and widely available - it would be a boon for medical patients and recreational users and even more of a boon for mom and pop.

Passage of the MORE Act by the House will move the fight to the Senate which is still run by Republican Mitch McConnel. Notwithstanding our newly elected Vice-President Kamala Harris is the MORE Act’s lead sponsor in the Senate, if Democrats fail in their Quixotic quest to secure the two Georgia Senate seats up for election in January, the MORE Act may never see the light of day on the Senate floor, as McConnel is no friend of cannabis reform.

With one out of every three Americans now living in states that allow for the use of cannabis by adults for any reason and states struggling to make up for COVID19 related lost revenue, its passage in the House will still be very important symbolically and could give state legislators the green light they need to pass cannabis legalization legislation.

Taking 60 seconds to contact your Congressional representative is not an act of spinning your wheels, - it is the essence of citizen lobbying and is an important component of moving the needle significantly forward toward totally ending cannabis prohibition. Take that 60 seconds right now and contact your Congress person and tell them to Vote Yes on the More Act.

The absolutely best and easiest way is to call their office – it's so simple, you don’t even need to know the name of your Congressional Representative. Call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121 (you can call anytime as the Congressional switchboard operates 24/7) tell the real live person who answers the phone either the name of your Congressional Representative or the zip code in which you live and they will connect you to their office.  When you are connected tell the receptionist who answers the phone (or leave a voice-message if the office is closed and no one answers) that you want your Congress person to vote YES on the MORE Act. You can add a few more words if you want, but just telling them to vote YES on the MORE Act gets the point across succinctly and forcefully.

The next best way is to send your Congress person an email. The Marijuana Policy Project has made it super simple to send your Congressional Representative an email. Whether you know who they are or not, the website produces a letter that will go to their office and it also allows you to add your two cents worth to the letter if you want. To send your Congressional Representative an email letter, CLICK HERE.

[tacman7 558]

I just tested the link and sent mail to my representative so that's working.

 

 

[gardenartus 13,813]

 I don't think we shall see anything pass the Senate, while McConnell sits in control. Let's hope and pray we get the two senators in Georgia, to flip the senate control. I like this one better than the others I have seen. This one takes it right off the schedule, to have a bit of true freedom, needs off the schedule. Too much politics in this. 

[tacman7 558]

Follow up today:

The House voted Friday for the first time to federally decriminalize and levy a tax on marijuana sales, following through on pledges by Democratic lawmakers to find new approaches to regulating drugs and rectify a policy that has disproportionately harmed communities of color.

The 228-164 vote follows a trend sweeping the nation: Since 2012, 15 states and Washington, D.C ., have legalized recreational use and sales of marijuana, and many more have legalized it for medicinal purposes. Though the measure is not expected to pass the Senate, marijuana advocates and the bill’s supporters said passing the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act was a significant step in aligning U.S. drug laws with states and public opinion strongly supporting such measures.

“We had no hopes of or plan to pass this in the Senate; nonetheless, it’s really important to recognize that this is a huge historic move,” said Maritza Perez, national affairs director at the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group that had pushed for passage of the bill. “Never before has Congress voted to deschedule marijuana, so that within itself is huge … and could really move the needle and help us reintroduce the MORE Act in the next Congress, and help us get more allies and more lawmakers on board.”

Descheduling marijuana would remove it from the list of drugs regulated under the federal Controlled Substances Act. It wouldn’t legalize cannabis at the state level, but the bill could serve as a model for states that pursue legalization, as increasing numbers are doing.

[gardenartus 13,813]

Slightly telling, almost all Republicans voted no, almost all Dems, voted yes.