Moving Towards the Federal Legalization of Cannabis

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By Dagen Kipling

At this point in the election cycle, every action taken by the federal government will be scrutinized by the public eye. Currently, Congress continues to struggle to compromise over a stimulus package to aide thirty million unemployed Americans. Both sides have locked into a stalemate over the issue because each party wants to make sure that their side comes out on top. 

In the House of Representatives, the Democrats are ready to roll the dice on a piece of legislation that could help them secure a major victory in November.  

In 2019, The House Judiciary Committee passed the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act; the first step towards federally legalizing cannabis. Today, Democrats are looking to push through the MORE Act through the House of Representatives and pass it on to the senate. The purpose of the MORE Act is to “remove the penalties for marijuana” as well as “erase some criminal records”. This piece of legislation has the potential to reverse the social and racial injustices that have occurred for years as a result of the prohibition of cannabis. 

However, with the election nearing, Republicans are focused on getting the economy stable amidst the pandemic. While Democrats recognize the importance of helping the severely damaged economy, they believe that passing this legislation needs to happen before the vote in November. Democrats argue that this is the time to reverse some of the damages the war on drugs has brought to the American people. Millions of those afflicted by unfair cannabis legislation are currently serving sentences for non-violent drug offenses. Democrats are trying to pass the MORE ACT in order to help give those people their freedom back. But as the country struggles with a growing unemployment number, protests calling for police reform, and COVID-19 continuing to plague the nation, voters must decide between the economy and justice.

Within a year the police will also make over one million drug possession arrests. Out of those arrests 500,000 will be incarcerated for those drug offenses. Cannabis is currently federally classified as a Schedule I drug, which means the government has determined Cannabis highly addictive and has no current medical use. Marijuana has been defined by the DEA as a harmful narcotic, yet certain states have passed legislation supporting the use of medical marijuana. So while constituents in those states may purchase and consume cannabis medically, the DEA continues to claim there are no current medical uses for the plant. 

Correcting the legislation surrounding marijuana will also be a positive step in the fight for civil rights. The American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) released a study explaining that Black people are “on average four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana possession than white people.” This ratio can reach as high as 10 to one in certain states. 

One explanation for the statistic is because police are more likely to patrol neighborhoods with a large Black population compared to a neighborhood with a Caucasian majority. This causes a large population of young Black men and women to carry a criminal record with them for the rest of their lives — a lifelong implication over a small green plant that has been scientifically proven to help patients suffering from chronic illness and terminal diseases. 

While Democrats are hopeful that passing the MORE Act will help many facets of American life, it will not solve every problem that the U.S. has deeply embedded into its criminal justice system. In the prison system, four out of five incarcerated persons are locked up for a reason other than a drug offense. However, a large population of the country has been afflicted by unfair laws intertwined with cannabis, and that needs to be addressed. 

There are currently only eight states that have no form of legal cannabis in the U.S. Yet there are only 28 states (and the District of Columbia) that have decriminalized cannabis. While passing the MORE Act may seem like a gamble to many Political Scientists, it is about time that the U.S. government begins to care more about its constituents than being re-elected. 

The social and racial injustices caused by America’s strict view on Cannabis are severe, and in today’s climate of pressuring officials to make fair and correct changes to policy makes this it is the perfect time for Congress to federally legalize marijuana.

You can follow Dagen on Twitter @DagenKipling.