There is a political and cultural tension running through the U.S. While dispensaries flourish on the streets and the word “rescheduling” appears in every headline, Congress has decided to step in. On Friday, a group of Democratic lawmakers reintroduced what many describe as the most sweeping bill yet to remove cannabis from the list of controlled substances and legalize it at the federal level.
In a political hornet’s nest where ideology, business, and civil rights collide, the cannabis debate has become an uncomfortable mirror of what the United States is today: should we keep punishing thousands through prison and deportations or fuel an industry that already moves billions of dollars a year?
40 lawmakers introduce new cannabis bill: What the MORE Act means
Last Friday, as speculation swirled over what Donald Trump will do about marijuana rescheduling, a group of 40 Democratic lawmakers took the lead in Congress. Led by Jerry Nadler (New York) and joined by Dina Titus (Nevada), Ilhan Omar (Minnesota), and Nydia Velázquez (New York), the Marijuana Opportunity, Reinvestment and Expungement Act—better known as the MORE Act—made its return to the House.
To get this straight, it helps to break down the difference between rescheduling and descheduling:
Rescheduling means moving cannabis from Schedule I—reserved for substances deemed to have high abuse potential like heroin, LSD, MDMA, and currently cannabis—to the less restrictive Schedule III, which includes substances with lower abuse potential and accepted medical uses such as ketamine, codeine, or steroids.
Descheduling, on the other hand, would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act entirely, treating it more like alcohol or tobacco and leaving it up to each state to decide whether (and how) to regulate or prohibit it. This would effectively legalize the plant.
The MORE Act puts forward this latter option: …
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Author: Camila Berriex / High Times
