House Passes Bill Decriminalizing Marijuana

 

The U.S. House of Representatives have reportedly voted to approve a bill decriminalizing marijuana. 

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (the MORE Act) was approved Friday by a 220-204 vote. Three of the 220 votes in favor of passing the bill were Republican lawmakers. 

“This vote is a clear indicator that Congress is finally listening to the vast majority of voters who are sick and tired of our failed marijuana criminalization policies and the damage they continue to inflict in communities across the nation every day,” said Morgan Fox, political director for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). “It is long overdue that we stop punishing adults for using a substance that is objectively safer than alcohol, and that we work to address the disparate negative impacts that prohibition has inflicted on our most vulnerable individuals and marginalized communities for nearly a century.”

If the bill passes Senate, the MORE Act would remove marijuana from the list of scheduled substances, establish a process for the expungement of convictions, among other measures.