A vote by the US House of Representatives was cast to decriminalize cannabis at the federal level

Legalize At Federal Level

The US House of Representatives had cast a vote to endorse a bill that would decriminalize cannabis at the government level.It's an initial move toward making the drug legal and making a try to fix a portion of the damage that is caused by punitive drug laws, especially among communities of color.

Favor And Against Votes

The voting was occurred along party lines, with 220 votes in favor and 204 going against.The bill faces a questionable future in the Senate; however, attorneys say with Democrats controlling both the Congress houses, they are more confident that the legislation will finally become law.The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (or MORE Act) would eliminate marijuana from the government's list of controlled substances and add a federal tax on cannabis items.

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Past Federal Cannabis Conviction

The MORE Act would also lay out a process to erase convictions and review sentences for past government cannabis convictions.The House also added many amendments to the bill, among them a prerequisite by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to organize a study on the effect of the authorization of recreational marijuana by states on the working environment and assist employers with improving the best practices in refreshing their cannabis policies.

Reason For Denying

 Another bill, which was dismissed, would have rescinded cannabis use as a justification behind refusing a federal security clearance retroactive to 1971.The House passed a bill's earlier version in December 2020 in a lame-duck session, just to see it stand in the Senate.However, with midterms approaching, advocates figure the circumstance may finally be ideal for Congress to make a move.

More Optimistic

In an interview with The Verge, the director of the Drug Policy Action office for national affairs, Maritza Perez, stated that I feel much more hopeful than I did last time around.It was stated that the bill is the same version that is passed in 2020, with no considerable changes, so ideally, each and every individual who cast a vote last time will vote in favor once more.A sponsor of the bill, House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), says the recent sign of state legalization efforts has put stress on Congress to act.