Friend,

I’m thrilled to let you know that the U.S. House just passed the MORE Act! [link removed] It’s the first time a chamber of Congress has ever voted on and approved legislation that deschedules marijuana and centers reparative justice.

You made this unprecedented vote a reality. Thank you for helping us make history! 

The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment & Expungement (MORE) Act is the most far-reaching marijuana legalization bill to ever be considered in Congress. It would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level to let states set their own policies without federal interference. And it would begin to repair the harms of prohibition by expunging marijuana convictions and reinvesting in communities disproportionately impacted including Black, Latinx, and low-income people.

The criminalization of marijuana is a cornerstone of the racist war on drugs. Even after a decade of reform victories, one person was arrested nearly every minute last year for simply possessing marijuana. 

Today the House took the most powerful step forward to address that shameful legacy. While we celebrate today’s milestone, we also recognize that the final version of the bill included problematic provisions that disallow people with marijuana convictions from potentially fully participating in the industry at the federal level. It also included language intentionally limiting resentencing and expungement relief to people with “nonviolent” marijuana offenses. We are committed to removing these provisions and improving the bill to be more inclusive in the next Congress. 

With your support, DPA has worked tirelessly to move the MORE Act forward since its inception, by working with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris to draft and introduce the legislation, creating the Marijuana Justice Coalition to build widespread support, and pushing to get it passed out of the House Judiciary Committee last year. 

This historic vote in the House gives us hope, but our fight is far from over. The continued enforcement of marijuana prohibition laws are responsible for more than half a million arrests in the United States every year. And we’ll face new challenges moving federal marijuana reform forward next year. 

Although there is more work to be done, momentum to end marijuana prohibition is accelerating across the country. Thirty-five states plus D.C. have medical marijuana laws, 15 states and D.C. have legalized marijuana for adult use, and the vast majority of Americans support legalization.

It’s only a matter of time before we end the federal war on marijuana and repair the harms of prohibition once and for all. Thank you for standing with us in the fight for marijuana justice. 

With gratitude,

Queen Adesuyi
Policy Manager, National Affairs
Drug Policy Alliance


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