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| Friend, Yesterday was a landmark day in the fight to end the war on marijuana and repair the harms of its prohibition. In the morning, the House Judiciary Committee voted to approve the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement Act (MORE Act) - the furthest any marijuana legalization legislation has ever advanced in Congress. Then in the evening, presidential candidates engaged in one of the most substantial conversations on equitable marijuana legalization and the war on drugs we’ve seen at a debate this year. Drug Policy Action, as the advocacy and political arm of the Drug Policy Alliance, has worked tirelessly to raise drug policy to the national platform this election cycle. In past debates we’ve seen candidates discuss solutions to an overdose crisis that claimed 68,000 lives last year. They’ve discussed the need for criminal justice reforms so individuals aren’t burdened with barriers to jobs, housing, voting, and education for simple drug law violations. They have even discussed decriminalizing drug use and possession. Our success raising drug policy reform issues continued last night. The conversation started with references to the thoroughly debunked myth that marijuana is a gateway drug. But it quickly shifted to the inequitable, race-based application of current marijuana laws and the need to not only legalize marijuana, but to do it in a way that repairs the harm done in the communities, primarily black and brown, hardest hit by its prohibition. There were more than 600,000 arrests for simple marijuana possession in 2018. Of those, 46.9% were black or Latino despite only making up just 31.5% of the population. That’s why the MORE Act is so critical. The MORE Act is a powerful step toward righting the wrongs of prohibition and advancing marijuana justice for all. It would de-schedule marijuana and reinvest marijuana tax revenue in those who have been most affected by failed marijuana laws. It would also support equitable licensing, prevent deportation and provide for federal resentencing and expungement for marijuana cases. As the MORE Act moves to the House floor, we need all candidates, in and out of Congress, to support this historic bill. While it won’t make up for the full scale of harm that prohibition has caused to its victims, it’s the closest we’ve come yet to ending those harms at the federal level while also beginning to repair them.
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