Congress takes up historic bill to decriminalize cannabisPosted by On

As the cannabis industry continues to take root state by state, Congress will consider whether to remove marijuana from the federal Controlled Substances Act once and for all.

The House will vote Friday on the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, or MORE Act, which would decriminalize cannabis and clear the way to erase nonviolent federal marijuana convictions.

The MORE Act would also create pathways for ownership opportunities in the emerging industry, allow veterans to obtain medical cannabis recommendations from Veteran Affairs doctors and establish funding sources to reinvest in communities disproportionately affected by the war on drugs.

Friday’s vote would mark the first time a full chamber of Congress has taken up the issue of federally decriminalizing cannabis.

“It is the right thing to do,” said a co-sponsor of the MORE Act, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. “For too long, the war on drugs has targeted young people, especially Black people, and rejected the advice of experts.”

Blumenauer, whose congressional district includes parts of Portland, has been working to end cannabis prohibition since the 1970s, when he was in the state Legislature. He said that the drug war “never made any sense” to him and that it was instead born out of President Richard Nixon’s “cynical” view on cannabis and other controlled…

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