A retiring House Democratic lawmaker reintroduced a bill that would legalize marijuana countrywide last week, but its chances of receiving a hearing are slim.
U.S. Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York on Friday reintroduced the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would decriminalize the drug at the federal level and set up a 5% federal sales tax on cannabis and cannabis products.
“It is long past time to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge marijuana convictions and facilitate resentencing, while reinvesting in the communities most adversely impacted by the War on Drugs,” Nadler said in a statement.
Federal marijuana legalization proposal
The MORE Act is considered the most progressive of federal marijuana legalization bills to appear in Congress.
It would:
- Remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act entirely, gifting plant-touching cannabis companies tax relief from Internal Revenue Service Code 280E and eliminating the need for President Donald Trump to reschedule cannabis.
- Require federal courts to expunge federal cannabis crimes.
- Permit the Small Business Administration (SBA) to fund “legitimate cannabis-related businesses and service providers.”
The MORE Act passed the full House in 2022 but never received a hearing in the Senate.
Nadler’s legislation seems unlikely to receive a hearing in the Republican-controlled Congress, let alone advance to a floor vote for passage.
Republican-controlled Congress has opposed marijuana reform
The MORE Act has 40 co-sponsors, none of whom are Republicans.
Co-sponsors do include U.S. Reps. Dina Titus and Ilhan Omar, co-chairs of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus.
Even Republican-sponsored cannabis reform legislation has been a hard sell under Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Before taking the gavel, Johnson consistently voted against all cannabis reform bills, including marijuana banking reform as well as previous versions of the MORE Act.
And several Republican-sponsored cannabis reform bills, introduced earlier this year, have yet to receive a hearing.
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The 78-year-old Nadler, who represents affluent areas of uptown Manhattan in New York City, announced his intent to retire after 17 terms in a New York Times interview published Monday.
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