US House again passes bill to federally decriminalize marijuana

WASHINGTON

The US House of Representatives again voted to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level on Friday, with a slim bipartisan majority voting in favor.

In all, three Republicans joined the chamber's Democrats in supporting the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act, which cleared the House 220-204.

The House last passed a bill to decriminalize marijuana nationwide in 2020. But it failed to make its way through the Senate.

It is unclear if this year's legislation will fare better.

Among its provisions, the act removes marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, requires federal courts to erase prior marijuana-related convictions, and authorizes a 5% tax on the sale of marijuana and marijuana products.

A bill summary said the funds would be used for programs to provide services to communities adversely affected by the US war on drugs, provide loans to small businesses in the marijuana industry owned by "socially and economically disadvantaged individuals," and fund marijuana licensing and employment among those individuals.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said on the House floor that, if enacted, the legislation will "reverse decades of failed federal policies based on the criminalization of marijuana."

"Whatever one’s views are on the use of marijuana for recreational or medicinal use, the policy of arrests, prosecution, and incarceration at the Federal level has proven both unwise and unjust," Nadler, who introduced the legislation, said.

While the legislation's fate remains unclear, 36 US states have already legalized medicinal marijuana in addition to Washington, D.C. The nation's capital and 19 states have gone a step further, and legalized recreational use of the drug for adults.