The RESPECT Resolution picked up three additional backers this week, marking the first notable expansion of support since its introduction last week, bringing the total number of sponsors to 11.
Representatives Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Jared Huffman (D-WI), and LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) signed onto the measure Tuesday, joining the growing coalition pushing for federal action to address long-standing inequities in marijuana enforcement and industry participation.
The Realizing Equitable & Sustainable Participation in Emerging Cannabis Trades Resolution was filed by Representatives Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Troy Carter (D-LA), Lateefah Simon (D-CA), and Dina Titus (D-NV), all members of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, along with Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Hank Johnson (D-GA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), and Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ). The resolution lays out a federal framework for expanding equity in the legal marijuana industry while acknowledging the disproportionate harms that decades of prohibition inflicted on Black, Brown, and low-income communities.
Omar said the United States has a responsibility to correct the damage caused by punitive marijuana policies that “entrenched cycles of poverty and inequality,” noting that people of color were far more likely to be arrested despite comparable usage rates. Carter added that prohibition has “ruined families” and locked many individuals out of economic opportunities, even as legalization spreads nationwide.
Simon said the measure underscores the need for deliberate steps to close persistent disparities, and Titus called it a necessary shift away from the era of harsh federal penalties tied to marijuana’s Schedule I status.
The only cannabis-related bill in the U.S. Congress right now with more sponsors than the RESPECT Resolution is the MORE Act, which would deschedule cannabis (that bill has 60 sponsors).
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