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Senator Mike Rounds (RS.D.), for example, remains staunchly weed-proof despite his home state making history by legalizing both medical and recreational marijuana on Election Day.
“I haven’t changed my position on this. I think that’s really bad public policy, ”Rounds said. He said he did not plan to work on revising federal marijuana laws, even sketchy laws like access to banks for cannabis companies. “I never say that I will never do anything, but I am certainly not going to be a supporter of any kind of action in this direction.”
Some 49% of Republicans and 83% of Democrats support full legalization of marijuana, according to Gallup.
“I think it’s seen as a Democratic problem and a libertarian problem,” Democratic pollster Celinda Lake said. “But the real voters, the real Republican voters, are also in favor.”
Despite Democratic support, their best case scenario is a 50-50 share of the Senate after Georgia’s second round in January, and mustering enough votes for a legalization bill would be a challenge.
The Democratic-led House, meanwhile, plans to vote on removing all federal marijuana sanctions and removing marijuana-related criminal records as early as this week – setting a benchmark on the issue for the next Congress. . Even with a Democratic majority, however, a vote on the bill originally slated for September was delayed because moderate Democrats feared that voting to legalize cannabis without securing a coronavirus aid package would have hurt them on Election Day.
Lake said their calculation was wrong.
“I think it was founded for a reason that’s 20 years old,” Lake said. “I think some politicians have no idea how fast voters have moved on this file.”
Democrats will have a slimmer majority in the House in January, but supporters still expect the passage of weed laws in the Red States – and the addition of members from both parties to the ranks of legal state legislators. – means that the chamber will advance a large cannabis. agenda.
But the Senate is the key to any major change in federal cannabis law. Without a Senate open to the consideration of comprehensive legislation, all important bills passed by the House risk stalling. The best chance for any cannabis legislation at the 117th Congress will be small policy changes.
“[Cannabis legalization] Said Democratic Senator Cory Booker, whose home state of New Jersey legalized recreational marijuana on polling day. “But how it happens and when it happens is the question.”
The next Senate will consist of 30 members who represent states where adult marijuana is legal – eight more than in the chamber now – including six Republicans. Fragmented legislation that stimulates medical marijuana research or improves access to banking services for the cannabis industry is gaining support from both sides, and these bills are most likely to be passed next Congress.
The SAFE Banking Act was passed by the House last year with strong bipartisan support and has been debated by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. Next year, the bill could be improved by reshuffling committee chairs.
Pennsylvania Senator Pat Toomey, who will chair the Senate Banking Committee next year if the GOP retains the Senate, said he was ready to consider the bill. The home state of Toomey, Pa., Allows the use of medical marijuana, so he has more incentive to act than current President Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) – who hails from one of the only two states that do not allow any form of marijuana, even for certain medical conditions. .
“I am sensitive to the idea that the people involved in [the] The cannabis industry – quite legally, in the state in which it operates – should be able to benefit from regular banking services, ”Toomey said.
Passing marijuana laws in the Red States will also affect moderate Democrats and legal Republicans in the House, lawmakers and lobbyists say, potentially encouraging some of the two parties to take a more pro-marijuana stance.
“I think most Republicans will believe this is a matter of state rights in the states that voted [to legalize]Said Rep. Dave Joyce (R-Ohio), Co-Chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus. “And now it’s a matter of federal policy aligning with the states and not punishing them for making the decision they made.
The Congressional Cannabis Caucus in the House has been in existence since 2017 and has historically had two Democratic co-chairs and two Republicans. Democrats are Earl Blumenauer and Barbara Lee, who represent the traditionally blue “left coast” states of Oregon and California. Republicans are Representative Don Young – whose home state of Alaska has a strong libertarian ideology and legalized recreational marijuana in 2014 – and Joyce, whose home state of Ohio legalized. medical marijuana in 2016.
But evolution on the grass does not happen immediately for all lawmakers after their states are legalized. Oregon’s only Republican lawmaker, Representative Greg Walden, said he did not vote for the initiative that legalized marijuana in Oregon in 2014, but now wants “the treat like alcohol ”.
“I have come a long way from where I started, to respect the will of the voters,” Walden said. “I think over time you will see this move forward.”
On election night, 70% of South Dakotans and 69% of Mississippians voted to legalize medical marijuana. In Montana, the same percentage of voters – 56.9% – chose Trump and chose legal recreational marijuana.
The maneuvers to capitalize on these votes have already started. Joyce said he and Blumenauer are working to assemble a cannabis coalition in the coming weeks that includes members from new legal states.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who in September pushed for the MORE law vote to take place ahead of the election so Democratic lawmakers could campaign on it, predicted that withholding marijuana reform in the next Congress could actually harm the Democratic Party in the long run.
“We are now in a race. It’s a warning sign, which Republican states are now starting to legalize, ”Ocasio-Cortez said. “If the Republicans beat the Democrats on legalizing marijuana … who are the moderates who are going to blame after this?”
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