Urge your U.S. representative to vote in favor of ending federal cannabis prohibition!

Tomorrow, the U.S. House of Representatives will once again vote on the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, which would end the federal prohibition of cannabis and create important protections for individuals, the emerging cannabis industry, and those harmed by prohibition policies.

Please send a quick email to your representative NOW in support of this important legislation!

Sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and 114 cosponsors, the MORE Act would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and end criminal penalties under federal law; require federal courts to expunge prior cannabis-related convictions and provide for resentencing; provide grants and funding to communities most harmed by the war on cannabis; lift barriers to licensing and employment in the cannabis industry; protect immigrants from being denied citizenship over cannabis; and allow VA physicians to recommend medical cannabis to veterans. A summary of the bill’s key provisions can be found here. 

The House previously passed the measure (228-164) in December 2020, but it was not considered by the Senate.  

With this House floor vote, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have the opportunity and responsibility to come together to pass this crucial piece of legislation. The prohibition and criminalization of cannabis has led to decades of injustice and devastating consequences, particularly in Black, Latino, and low-income communities, and it’s clear that a strong majority of Americans do not support the status quo. It is past time for Congress to listen to the American people and take real action towards ending the war on cannabis and advancing serious criminal justice reform.

Please urge your U.S. representative to support MORE, and then share the link to take action far and wide. We’ll continue to keep you updated on the progress of the MORE Act and other federal cannabis reforms.

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Urge your representative to support the MORE Act.

Today, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) reintroduced the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act. If enacted, the legislation would end the federal prohibition of cannabis by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act and ending criminal penalties under federal law.

Send an email to your representative in support of the MORE Act. In addition to federally decriminalizing and descheduling cannabis, the MORE Act would require federal courts to expunge prior cannabis-related convictions and provide for resentencing; provide grants and funding to communities most harmed by the war on cannabis; lift barriers to licensing and employment in the cannabis industry; block federal agencies from denying public benefits or security clearances due to cannabis use; protect immigrants from being denied citizenship over cannabis; and allow VA physicians to recommend medical cannabis to veterans.

Further, since serious criminal justice reform cannot progress in our country without ending the war on cannabis, the MORE Act would set federal policy on a path toward correcting an unfair system by addressing many of the harms caused by prohibition using an equity and justice-centered framework. A summary of the bill’s key provisions can be found here. 

The House of Representatives previously passed the MORE Act in December 2020, but the bill did not advance in the Senate.

With the reintroduction of MORE, members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have the opportunity and responsibility to come together and pass this important piece of legislation. The prohibition and criminalization of marijuana has led to decades of injustice and devastating consequences, particularly in Black, Latino, and low-income communities, and it’s clear that a strong majority of Americans do not support the status quo. It is past time for Congress to listen to the American people and take real action towards ending the war on cannabis and advancing serious criminal justice reform.

Please urge your U.S. representative to support this legislation, and then share the link to take action far and wide. We’ll continue to keep you up-to-date on MORE and other federal cannabis reforms. 

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Follow this link to contact your lawmaker right now and ask for a YES vote.

Lawmakers today in the House of Representatives debated the MORE Act, which is now expected to get a vote by the entire House of Representatives tomorrow. For the first time, Congress will vote on a measure to end the federal war on cannabis.

It’s a big deal. And it is a chance for you to have a direct say in the law-making process. If you haven’t already, now is the time to send a message to your lawmaker to ask for support for the MORE Act. We’ve made it easy to do — just follow this link which routes your message to your own member in the House. 

MORE would completely remove cannabis from the list of controlled substances and strike criminal possession laws at the federal level. That alone is huge, but it would also have the effect of getting better access for veterans and letting cannabis businesses use banks — just to name a few. MORE would also expunge the criminal cannabis records for those caught in the gears of the federal criminal justice system. You can read more about other key provisions in MORE here. 

Please take a moment to reach out to your member in the House so they hear from you before they vote tomorrow. Here we go, folks!

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Click here to ask lawmakers to vote "yes" on cannabis legalization.

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives are poised to vote on the MORE Act, which could come as early as Wednesday. It has been a historic year for cannabis reform, and December is shaping up to be no different.  

Click here to send an email message to your representative in the House in support of the MORE Act.

This landmark legislation would remove cannabis from the list of controlled substances, expunge criminal records related to cannabis, and take other important steps toward ending the war on marijuana and its consumers. Criminal justice reform cannot begin in our country without ending the war on cannabis. The MORE Act would strike at the core of its harmful status in federal law, and it would provide essential restorative justice provisions to begin to undo decades of harm caused by prohibition. For more on MORE, click here. 

If you haven’t done so already, please take a few minutes to reach out to your House members and ask for their support on the MORE Act. Then, forward this message to folks in your network, and let's keep up the pressure.

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I should be fired.

For the past four years, I have tried to convince my party and my president to embrace marijuana policy reform. It should have been easy. After all, it is consistent with our core beliefs of freedom, individual liberty, personal responsibility, and federalism. But I failed.

I know from personal experience as a former legislator who was the original lead sponsor of my state’s first medical marijuana law that drug policy advocacy by a Republican is not the third rail everyone reflexively assumes it to be. Either because of, or in spite of, my advocacy over the past 20 years, I was also elected by Maryland’s most partisan Republicans to be a party chair and four-time RNC convention delegate, once as delegation chair and twice for Trump.

As a candidate, Trump said he was in favor of medical marijuana… “100%.” He also said he knew sick people who use marijuana for medical purposes and that, “it really does help them.” I knew then that he was sympathetic to patients and to our cause. And he thought legalizing marijuana should be left up to the states. I was dealt a pretty good hand.

During the 2016 election, four blue states passed adult-use marijuana ballot initiatives. One in Arizona failed by two points. Arkansas, Montana, and North Dakota passed medical marijuana with 53%, 58%, and 64% respectively. In Florida, medical marijuana received 71% of the vote, besting Trump by 1.9 million votes (6,519,000 for Measure 2 and 4,618,000 for Trump).

In battleground Florida, pot was more popular than the president, and Trump apparently noticed. His vocal support for Senator Cory Gardner’s STATES Act suggested that the drug war he had inherited would be another of the endless wars that would cease under his leadership.

In 2018, battleground Michigan passed commercial cannabis with 56% of the vote. Ruby red states Utah, Oklahoma, and Missouri passed medical with 53%, 57%, and 67% of the vote respectively and cost one Republican congresswoman her seat. Surely the Trump Administration noticed. Yet they never acted.

The Democrats won the House, and with its ‘leave it to the states’ attitude the STATES Act wasn’t comprehensive enough. It died without a vote. Progressives replaced STATES with the MORE Act, which proved too heavy to get off the runway. It has yet to get a floor vote.

Knowing he agreed with the policy and could witness firsthand the value of the politics, I was just waiting for executive action. In August, in anticipation of an ‘October Surprise,’ MPP hand-delivered to the administration a list of what Trump could do to bring this civil war to an end. Yet they never acted.

When it was apparent that the Democratic nominee would be the author of the ‘94 crime bill, Joe Biden, the RNC and the Trump campaign were quick to juxtapose Trump’s criminal justice reform efforts with Biden’s “lock ‘em up” history. But it was difficult to make the case that Biden was bad on cannabis when Trump wasn’t yet good on cannabis. Trump’s vocal support of STATES was negated by his nomination of Jeff “good people don’t smoke pot” Sessions as Attorney General and Sessions’ subsequent repeal of the Cole Memo.

Finally in August, the president blamed marijuana ballot initiatives for the defeat of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker for bringing “out like a million people that nobody ever knew were coming out.” I knew then that Trump understood the benefit of being on the right side of reform. Yet he never acted.

Maybe Trump is right, maybe not. According to an analysis by Marijuana Moment, one thing is certain: sharing your ballot with cannabis will embarrass you. In the red states, in the blue states, and in the battleground states, pot is more popular than the pols. This year, medical cannabis beat the president in South Dakota and Mississippi. Adult-use bested all the Senate, House, and Gubernatorial candidates in Montana and beat both Trump and Biden in New Jersey and Arizona.

If Trump is correct, there is a certain irony that, less than three months after his remarks to Walker, cannabis got 60%, Trump 49% in battleground Arizona. His margin was razor thin. In a race where everything mattered, marijuana votes mattered. Did being on the wrong side of cannabis not only embarrass Trump (and McSally) in Arizona, but also cost him the state’s 11 electoral votes and maybe the White House? Based on his comments in Wisconsin, Trump must think so.

Either way, someone should get fired.

Don Murphy is the director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, a former Maryland legislator, and four-time Republican National Committee Convention Delegate.

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Click here to ask your member of the House to vote “yes” on the MORE Act.

Leadership in the House of Representatives recently announced plans to vote on the MORE Act in December. As we’ve reported, this will mark the first time the House has voted to end cannabis prohibition, and the measure takes other major steps toward cannabis policy reform.

This is big, and now is the time to reach out to your member of Congress. Follow this link to send a quick message asking your Representative to vote yes on the MORE Act when it is called for a vote.

In effect, the MORE Act would end the war on cannabis at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act and ending criminal penalties under federal law. It would also take steps to reduce the harm from years of failed cannabis laws by expunging criminal histories related to marijuana and prohibiting discrimination against individuals on the basis of their cannabis use. We have a summary of many of the key provisions here.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who made the announcement, is making good on leadership’s commitment to hold a vote on the landmark bill, which was originally scheduled before the election. If the measure passes in the House, it will move to the Senate.

Please take a moment to make sure your House member knows of your support and ask for a “yes” vote on the MORE Act!

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Click here to send a message to your member of Congress in support of the MORE Act!

Members of Congress are still on track to vote on the MORE Act later this month — a federal bill that would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and eliminate criminal penalties under federal law. If enacted, the MORE Act would essentially end the war on cannabis at the federal level.

This is big, and you can help. Follow this link to send a message to your representative in the House, who should hear from you on this.

In addition to decriminalizing cannabis, MORE does other important things: it would expunge criminal histories related to marijuana and prohibit discrimination against individuals on the basis of their cannabis use, to name just a couple. A closer look at MORE is available here.

This is an important time when lawmakers need to hear from voters in their districts to help press the issue — and that’s you. Please take action now. And then, please forward this message to people in your circle and help get the word out.

Thank you!

MPP is a not-for-profit organization that works to end the war on cannabis and reduce its harm. We are funded by supporters like you who want to see better cannabis policies. Please join our fight by making a donation today!
 

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Urge your representative to support the MORE Act on the House floor!

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This week, MPP sent a letter on behalf of the organization and its supporters to all members of the U.S. House of Representatives, calling on them to sign on as cosponsors of the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act of 2019 (H.R. 3884). The measure would federally decriminalize and deschedule cannabis, thus allowing states to set their own policies. It also contains strong social equity provisions with an emphasis on restorative justice for communities most impacted by cannabis prohibition. The act was introduced by Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) just over a year ago, and historically received committee approval last November, but has since awaited further action to advance to the House floor. 

Just days ago, Marijuana Moment reported that the House of Representatives is planning a floor vote on this legislation for September, according to an aide for a key congressional committee chair and several advocates. The hope is to get as many cosponsors on the legislation as possible, which will hopefully compel Speaker Nancy Pelosi to put it on the calendar for September. 

But the calendar is tight, and the path forward is complicated. There is a host of speculation on its likelihood, and among COVID-19, partisan wrangling, and the politics leading up to the election, there are many unknowns. You can read more about that here.

MPP views this legislation as an opportunity for the federal government to enter the cannabis conversation in an impactful and supportive way, as the measure addresses two key challenges we currently face. First, it would be a major step forward in criminal justice reform at a critical time as we work to address injustices and inequalities in our criminal justice system. Second, it would empower states to implement programs that can encourage economic growth when it is urgently needed. 

As our own Director of Federal Policies Don Murphy told Marijuana Moment, “ [MPP] supports the MORE Act because platform planks, task force reports, and political rhetoric will not stop 600,000 of our citizens from arrest, prosecution, and incarceration every year. The MORE Act will.”

Read MPP’s letter to House members here.

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Urge your U.S. Representative to support the MORE Act on the House floor!

Just moments ago, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee passed the most far-reaching cannabis legalization bill that has ever received a committee vote in Congress. The bill will now be sent to the full House of Representatives. This is a historic moment in our decades-long campaign to end cannabis prohibition at the federal level.

Sponsored by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act is a comprehensive approach to fixing our nation’s broken cannabis laws. In addition to federally decriminalizing and descheduling cannabis (thus allowing states to set their own policies), the MORE Act contains strong social equity provisions with an emphasis on restorative justice for communities most impacted by cannabis prohibition. Here are a few things the legislation would do:

• remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act;
• require federal courts to expunge prior cannabis-related convictions and provide for resentencing;
• provide grants and funding to communities most harmed by the war on cannabis — including by assessing a five percent federal tax on cannabis sales, with revenue used to fund programs such as job training, legal aid for those affected by prohibition, and small business loans for socially and economically disadvantaged individuals;
• lift barriers to licensing and employment in the cannabis industry;
• block federal agencies from denying public benefits or security clearances due to cannabis use;
• protect immigrants from being denied citizenship over cannabis; and
• allow VA physicians to recommend medical cannabis to veterans.

We have two requests:

1. Contact your representative in support of the MORE Act — help build support for this legislation.
2. Donate to MPP — provide us with the resources to maintain pressure on Congress to enact landmark federal cannabis reform.

Let’s put an end to cannabis prohibition — with justice for all.

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