Legislation that would deschedule marijuana and allow for the expungement of past marijuana offenses now has a combined 107 sponsors in the United States House of Representatives and Senate.
The Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, filed in April 2023, now has 89 sponsors. The measure aims to decriminalize marijuana at the federal level by removing it from the Controlled Substances Act, while expunging the records of individuals with prior marijuana convictions. Additionally, the MORE Act would establish a federal excise tax on legal marijuana sales. In the House, the SAFE Banking Act is the only marijuana-related bill with more sponsors than the MORE Act.
In the Senate, the Cannabis Administration and Opportunity Act (CAOA), introduced by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, has 18 sponsors, bringing the total for the two bills to 107.
Like the MORE Act, the CAOA would deschedule marijuana entirely, allow marijuana expungements and estabish a federal marijuana excise tax. However, the CAOA would take things a step further by establishing federal safety and regulatory standards for legal marijuana products, including establishing a Center for Cannabis Products within the FDA, tasked with regulating “the production, labeling, distribution, sales and other manufacturing and retail elements of the cannabis industry”.
Currently all 107 sponsors of the two measures are Democrats.
