Mediaboss Marketing

click to enlarge

Will Congress finally act on legalization?

Congress is once again making progress, however futile, toward decriminalization of cannabis in the United States. Why is Congress having to deal with cannabis policy in 2022, and how did we get here?

At the federal level, cannabis prohibition has been the official policy of the government for more than 80 years. In 1937, Congress passed the Marihuana Tax Act, which effectively began prohibition of the plant. The law was spurred on in part by industrial magnates whose products were competing with products made from hemp, as well as the racism of the day "marihuana" is the Spanish spelling of the word, and it was used intentionally to allow the public at large to associate the plant with Hispanic communities.

The Marihuana Tax Act was enforced until 1969. Famed psychedelic researcher and activist Timothy Leary was charged with violating the act in 1965, and with the help of the ACLU, appealed his way to the Supreme Court, which overturned the law in Leary v. United States. The court found it unconstitutionally violated the Fifth Amendment.

That wasn't the end of prohibition, though, obviously. Cannabis remained illegal federally under the Narcotic Control Act of 1956.

In 1970, the Controlled Substances Act was introduced in Congress. Less than two months after first being introduced, President Richard Nixon had signed it into law. As a result, cannabis was placed onto Schedule I, where it remains to this day alongside drugs like heroin, LSD and ecstacy.

In the five decades since, the federal government has softened considerably on cannabis. Last Friday, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act passed the House of Representatives by a 220-204 vote. If that sounds familiar, it's because the same thing happened in the previous Congress. In December 2020, the MORE Act passed the House before running out of time in the Senate that Senate version was sponsored by then-Sen. and now-Vice President Kamala Harris.

As was the case two years ago, the MORE Act made it through the House largely along party lines. Unlike in 2020, however, the Democrats now control the Senate. Albeit barely. To avoid a filibuster, the Senate version would need support of all 50 Democrats as well as 10 Republicans. That's unlikely.

It is safe to say that in the 85-year dance between Congress and cannabis, there will be more to come.

View post:
The U.S. House seems ready to legalize cannabis, but prospects aren't great in the Senate - Inlander