Today is a critical inflection point for our movement.
For the second time in US history legislation to repeal the failed, unscientific, and racist policy of federal marijuana prohibition has passed the powerful House Judiciary Committee. The bill was approved 26-15, with 24 Democrats joined by two Republicans voting yes and 15 Republicans voting no.
The last time the Judiciary Committee advanced the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act -- in November of 2019 -- it took another 13 months before lawmakers approved the bill on the floor of the US House of Representatives.
But with an American being arrested for a marijuana law violation every 90 seconds, we cannot afford to wait.
The status quo has never been acceptable to us but never has public support from every corner of the political spectrum been so aligned as to demand that Congress take action on cannabis policy reform.
In the last Congressional session, NORML supporters drove hundreds of thousands of messages to Congress in support of our reform efforts. And while we made history in the House, we came up short in the Senate under then-Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Today, things are different. With support for reform by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, along with allies Cory Booker and Ron Wyden, there is a real window in the US Senate to bring about tangible change.
While Sens. Schumer, Booker, and Wyden continue to review public comments regarding The Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act, we need the House to ramp up the pressure on their Senate colleagues to generate enough elected officials to the table to overcome the legislative filibuster.
