Competing measures in the US House of Representatives give a clear indication of how much more support nationwide marijuana decriminalization has compared to an effort to thwart state marijuana laws.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act would fully decriminalize marijuana nationwide by removing marijuana as a controlled substance, while also allowing past marijuana possession charges to be expunged (removed) from people’s records. The measure has 80 sponsors, 75 more than it did when it was filed in September by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D) along with four cosponsors.
The Stop Pot Act was also filed in September. That measure would withhold federal funding from states and tribes that have legalized recreational marijuana. The measure was filed with just one cosponsor; it now has five total sponsors.
Specifically the proposal would withhold 10% of federal highway funds from states and tribes that violate the federal Controlled Substances Act, which currently considers marijuana a schedule 1 drug, putting it in the same category as heroin and making it illegal for all purposes.
With 80 sponsors, the MORE Act has 1,500% more sponsors than the Stop Pot Act. No other piece of legislation in the US House designed to thwart state marijuana laws has more sponsors than the Stop Pot Act, and similarly no effort to decriminalize or legalize marijuana nationwide has more sponsors than the MORE Act.
According to two separate polls released earlier this year, 64% of adults in the United States support marijuana being legalized for recreational use.
You can find the full text of the MORE Act by clicking here. You can find the full text of the Stop Pot Act by clicking here.
