Bill to decriminalize cannabis just passed the US House of Representatives
After years of paranoid, racist, irrational, wasteful, and outright tyrannical laws being enforced — all over a plant with more medicinal uses than the number of joints Bob Marley could smoke in a lifetime — finally basic common sense with US Federal Marijuana policy is beginning to prevail.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act just passed in the US Congress. If it passes Senate in the upcoming weeks, the Bill would remove cannabis from the list of federally controlled substances, give states the right to determine their own policies, and expunge all previous convictions related to the cannabis plant.
A 5% tax on all marijuana containing products would be directed towards a trust fund for victims of the “war on drugs” and for programs like job training and treatment for substance abuse.
In an opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee, Chairman Jerry Nadler said:
“For far too long, we have treated marijuana as a criminal justice problem instead of a matter of personal choice and public health. Whatever one’s views on the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal purposes, arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating users at the federal level is unwise and unjust,”
You heard that correctly. Soon, the police won’t be able to raid houses, lock people in cages, and ruin their lives simply for possessing a medicinal plant that God put here in the ground for humanity’s benefit.
