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Friday’s vote in the Democratic-led House will be the first time national decriminalization has been considered by the plenary chamber, although the legislation is unlikely to be passed by the Republican-led Senate.
The Marijuana Reinvestment and De-listing Act, or the MORE Act, would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act and eliminate criminal penalties for people who manufacture, distribute, or possess marijuana. It also includes creating a process to revoke previous convictions, known as expungement, and holding sentence review hearings for federal cannabis offenses.
The measure would also allow a 5% sales tax on marijuana products to invest in services such as job training, legal aid and drug treatment for those affected by the war on drugs. The tax revenue would also provide funds for loans to small businesses and allow access to marijuana licenses and employment for economically disadvantaged people.
Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this week criticized the House for passing the bill instead of passing parts of the Covid-19 stimulus bill that both sides agree to .
“The House of Representatives is spending this week on pressing issues like marijuana. You know, serious and important legislation that suits this national crisis,” McConnell said sarcastically in the Senate.
The House bill, introduced by Judicial President Jerry Nadler last July, has the support of 119 House Democrats with Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida.
“I have long believed that the criminalization of marijuana was a mistake, and the racially disparate enforcement of marijuana laws has only compounded that mistake, with grave consequences, especially for communities of color.” Nadler said in a statement Friday.
California Democratic Senator Kamala Harris, now vice president-elect, introduced a companion bill in the Senate, but it was stuck in the Republican-controlled Senate Finance Committee.
President-elect Joe Biden supports the decriminalization of marijuana and the automatic erasure of previous criminal records for possession of marijuana, but not the full legalization of the substance, a Biden campaign spokesperson said last year.
“It would allow states to continue to make their own choices about legalization and would seek to facilitate research on the positive and negative health effects of marijuana by reprogramming it as a Schedule 2 drug,” Andrew Bates , now a spokesperson for the Biden transition, told CNN.
While still illegal federally, states have legalized marijuana and established their own regulated markets since 2012 without major federal hindrance. The administrations of former President Barack Obama and President Donald Trump have not interfered with state legalized markets.
This fall, five more states voted to legalize marijuana, for medicinal or recreational purposes, or both, bringing the current national total to 15 states where recreational use and 36 states where medical use is legal, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Even more states are considering legalization in the coming years, including New York, New Mexico, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
CNN’s Jasmine Wright, Kyung Lah, Ted Barrett, Daniella Diaz and Arlette Saenz contributed to this report.
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