A federal House bill to fully decriminalize marijuana across the United States is sponsored by lawmakers representing the majority of states.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, first filed by Representative Jerrold Nadler (D) in September, has 80 sponsors. These sponsors represent 26 different states, including states that are typically seen as more conservative like Tennessee, Texas and Ohio.
The MORE Act would completely deschedule marijuana, removing it from the federal list of controlled substances. This would decriminalize marijuana nationwide, while placing a 5% tax (that rises to 8% by the fifth year) on legal marijuana sales in states that decide to allow it.
The MORE Act would also allow for past marijuana convictions to be expunged from people’s records, and it would provide legal protections for marijuana consumers such as preventing them from being denied public benefits.
The only other marijuana-related bill in the US House of Representatives is the SAFE Banking Act with 98. That measure would allow banks to provide financial services to state-legal marijuana businesses.
Below are the states with representatives sponsoring the MORE Act:
- New York
- Tennessee
- District of Columbia
- Georgia
- Maryland
- Florida
- California
- Illinois
- Oregon
- Nevada
- Massachusetts
- Washington
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Texas
- Missouri
- Delaware
- Colorado
- Vermont
- Michigan
- Maryland
- Maine
- Minnesota
- Pennsylvania
- Wisconsin
- New Jersey
A similar measure was approved through the House of Representatives in 2021 but failed to advance in the Senate.
