Democratic leaders pushing bicameral legislation to deschedule marijuana is not just political posturing in an election year, it’s an example of what’s possible if there’s political change.
87 Democrats in the House of Representatives are currently sponsoring legislation to fully deschedule marijuana. In the Senate, legislation to do the same will be filed on 4/20, led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. It’s easy to consider this simple posturing in an election year; a reminder of how often politicians promise one thing during a campaign only to pull a 180 after winning. In this instance, Democrats may finally be for real.
One of the primary reasons behind this line of thinking is that when Democrats controlled the House in 2022, the full chamber gave approval to the MORE Act, legislation that would deschedule marijuana entirely. This would decriminalize the plant nationwide while allowing states to establish their own marijuana laws. The measure would also place a federal excise tax on legal marijuana sales, and it would allow marijuana expungements.
Despite passing the House, the measure did not receive serious consideration in the Senate, with Democrats technically having the majority but only through a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Harris.
Still, the US House passing a bill to completely end the federal prohibition on marijuana is not just lip-service; it’s real action. Action that demonstrated a unity in the party to finally make some real movement when it came to marijuana.
Now, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will soon become the first Senate leader to ever sponsor a marijuana legalization bill; a clear sign of how things are different now than they were in 2022. Being officially introduced on 4/20, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA) would also deschedule marijuana and allow expungements like the MORE Act, but it would go even further by creating a regulatory framework for the legal marijuana industry, including creating the Center for Cannabis Products within FDA, tasked with regulating “the production, labeling, distribution, sales and other manufacturing and retail elements of the cannabis industry”.
All this said, there’s real reason to believe that Democrats are serious about descheduling marijuana, and will work hard to make it happen if they take back congress.
This leaves the question of POTUS.
Up until this point, President Biden has not called for marijuana to be descheduled. However, he did issue a 2022 executive order that led to the Department of Health recommending that the DEA reschedule marijuana to Schedule III, and Vice President Kamala Harris recently became the first Vice President to ever say “we need to legalize marijuana“. Whether or not the Biden/Harris Administration would get strongly behind the MORE Act or the CAOA is yet to be known, but it seems highly unlikely President Biden would veto either measure if they made it to his desk, championed by his own party.
All of this of course is moot if Republicans retain the House, take back the Senate or if former-President Trump defeats President Biden, given most Republicans (and nearly all Republican leaders) strongly oppose descheduling or legalizing marijuana (this is despite recent polling showing that a majority of Republicans actually support legalization). But, if Democrats do take back the House and keep the Senate, and President Biden is reelected, federal reform could finally be forthcoming.
