WASHINGTON — Friday, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard voted to pass H.R. 3884, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act.
WASHINGTON — Friday, U.S. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard voted to pass H.R. 3884, the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment, and Expungement (MORE) Act.
Gabbard co-led introduction of the bill last summer along with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler of New York and others.
The bill would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level, expunge pending and past convictions, and authorize a sales tax on marijuana with funds to be used for programs to help communities disproportionately impacted by marijuana’s criminalization.
“Finally. This is a historic moment that so many here and across the country have been working towards to take this step to end America’s destructive and costly war on drugs that has turned everyday Americans into criminals and torn families apart, ruining so many people’s lives,” said Gabbard.
“This legislation removes cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act and frees states to regulate it as they choose, and encourages research into the medicinal qualities of this plant that we already know is changing people’s lives and saving people’s lives.
“It also applies retroactively, expunging prior convictions and records, freeing a generation of people from the shackles of this failed war on drugs,” said Gabbard.
The bill was passed by a vote of 228-164 and now goes to the Senate for consideration. Rep. Ed Case voted to strike down the bill.
“The bottom line is this vote is about freedom. It’s about freedom of choice for every American to make their own decisions for themselves without fear of the government coming and arresting them,” said Gabbard.
“I urge my colleagues to support this bill. The Senate should pass it quickly so we can send it to the president for his signature.”
Agreed it is time to remove marijuana from the controlled substances act and remove all previous convictions for it. How silly and financially stupid to convict people for this.
Is it too late to ditch “Sleepy Joe” and his running mate and replace him with Tulsi Gabbard, one of the most level headed, considerate and intelligent persons who ran for president. It is way past time to eliminate the ridiculous classification of marijuana as a class A dangerous substance. I used to call it the “Lock Up a Black Person” law as it was originally intended as a means to control the black population. At that time, black people were the primary users of marijuana so it provided law enforcement a convenient means of making arrests. Later on the “Beatniks” and then the “Hippies” were added to the “undesirable” population. Tulsi hit the nail on the head, “It’s about freedom of choice”, as it always should have been.
Mahalo Tulsi, about time someone did the right thing.
One thing is that it’s regulation should include is that smoking pot must be far enough away from non smokers so the non smokers, especially children, cannot smell the marijuana.
The reason is, is that if you can smell the marijuana it is already in your lungs and blood stream and body.
many people prefer not to have marijuana in our body nor our children, whether at the beach, the park, or event, indoor or outdoor. Smoking must be away from all others who who are not smoking.
Regulation should be stiffer than cigarette regulations in effect already.
Otherwise bring on the ULTRA DUBEE…,