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The top Democrat in the U.S. House of Representative says there is enough support within the body to pass comprehensive federal marijuana reform—if only Republican leaders would allow a vote.
“I’ve consistently supported the rescheduling of marijuana,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said on Monday, which was also the unofficial cannabis holiday 4/20. “It should not be classified as a Schedule I drug.”
The congressman was responding to a question at a press briefing from a reporter who asked whether there is any realistic chances of passing marijuana reform legislation amid the still-ongoing administrative process to move cannabis from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule III.
“I’m hopeful that we can find a legislative path forward,” Jeffries said. “This does seem to exist as a bipartisan issue, particularly amongst younger generations of Republicans and the entirety of the House Democratic Caucus, and we know that the votes do exist to act legislatively.”
“We’re going to find a way to do so, hopefully in this Congress, and we certainly will be in a position to do something about it in the next Congress,” he said, an apparent reference to an expectation that his party will win back a majority in the chamber in November’s elections.
During his time in Congress and before that as a New York state legislator, Jeffries has sponsored numerous cannabis and drug policy reform proposals.
For example, he teamed up with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on a cannabis legalization bill called the Marijuana Freedom and Opportunity Act.
He is also cosponsoring legislation with Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH) that would lay the groundwork for federal marijuana legalization by creating a commission to study the issue and make recommendations on a regulatory system for cannabis that models what’s currently in place for alcohol.
“I’ve been part of bipartisan efforts, including the passage of the First Step Act to deal with overcriminalization in America and to ensure that taxpayer dollars aren’t being spent on a prison industrial complex that has not made the country safer,” Jeffries said on Monday. “It’s devastated individuals, families and communities and hurt our economic growth and development.”
Cannabis’s current classification “has been done so in a manner that stems from the failed war on drugs, which has resulted in the over incarceration of millions of Americans since that failed war on drugs was first launched by Richard Nixon in the summer of 1971,” he said.
The House under previous Democratic majorities has twice passed bills to federally legalize marijuana and on numerous occasions advanced legislation to ease the cannabis industry’s access to banking services—but those measures have never advanced with GOP control of the chamber. The Senate under Democratic or Republican control has also not passed marijuana legalization or banking legislation.
Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee this week is expected to issue a directive for federal agencies to study the “adequacy” of state marijuana laws and to assess methods for “preventing diversion of state legal cannabis product into jurisdictions that do not permit the use of cannabis.”
Tom Angell is the editor of Marijuana Moment. A 25-year veteran in the cannabis and drug law reform movement, he covers the policy, politics, science and culture of marijuana, psychedelics and other substances. He previously reported for Forbes, Marijuana.com and MassRoots, and was given the Hunter S. Thompson Media Award by NORML and has been named Journalist of the Year by Americans for Safe Access. As an activist, Tom founded the nonprofit Marijuana Majority and handled media relations, campaigns and lobbying for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition and Students for Sensible Drug Policy.
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